Secret Santa
by SplendentGoddess
Summary: AU - In a modern world where most youkai stick to the wilds, hanyou are stuck in the middle, forced to live in human society. Inuyasha has an ok job and ok coworkers, but he's lonely, until the office Christmas party changes everything. Inu/Kag
1. Introductions

Blanket Disclaimer:

Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.

* * *

><p>AN:

Hello again! Well, it's that time of year again; time for limited-time-only milkshake flavors and commercials from Radio Shack to remind us all they still exist. In other words…Christmas time! Since I have since branched out into the wonderful world of AU I thought what better time than now to try my hand at an AU Christmas story? Since AUs come in many different shapes and sizes, please take a brief moment to familiarize yourselves with this particular universe's dynamics, and then sit back and enjoy the WAFF-y and lemon-y goodness! (Inu/Kag of course)

As the summary briefly explained, this is a modern world in which humans know of youkai, but for the most part youkai stick to themselves in what's left of the wild. Youkai exist beyond our realm of understanding. They live in the forests, the sky, underground, in lakes and rivers. They are magic. They don't need jobs to support themselves, making whatever they need to exist, including clothing, from their youki. Sometimes some youkai choose to walk among the humans, but they cannot legally live in human society. Youkai are almost considered like animals except of course the humans know and accept their higher intelligence, though they are _not _human. A youkai cannot be tried in a human court of law for say…murder. If a youkai killed somebody then the taijiya and spiritualists would exterminate it, just like Animal Control taking out a bear that attacked a hiker. Generally speaking humans and youkai get along _okay _though because hanyou, unlike pureblooded youkai, are begrudgingly accepted within human society, and most choose to live in the human world since that is by far the lesser of two evils, hanyou usually receiving little to no tolerance from their demonic brethren. Unlike full-blooded youkai, hanyou _do _need to earn money to survive in our world, to clothe and feed themselves, and despite the prejudice of most humans, the 'Human Blood Protection Act' successfully made into law way back when protects hanyou as legally recognized human beings. Hanyou are sterile and cannot reproduce so the human population has nothing to worry about as far as further and further mixing of the species goes. Sure, there are those who are terrified of hanyou, afraid of their strength, their claws and fangs and magic, but in the end occasional interbreeding offers no real threat to mankind as a whole, and hanyou themselves are truthfully no more dangerous than a human who possesses superior fighting skills, those military and/or martial arts experts who know how to kill a man using only their pinkie finger. Are these people segregated? No…you just know not to piss them off! Racism against hanyou exists in high numbers but is not sanctioned, and a human attacking a hanyou for being a hanyou would be convicted of a hate crime, and the hanyou would be protected under the self-defense clause for fighting back. Sure, bad apples do happen, but trouble-hanyou are put in prisons that are spiritually warded; the human world knows what it's doing.

Now as far as whether or not this story supposedly takes place in Japan or America, let's just not worry about that minor detail. This _is_ fiction, after all, so let's just say it's a fictional country that's a cross between Japan and America and try not to analyze things too deeply. They're in a big city with explicit mention of Hollywood society, as well as growing up a miko in a traditional shrine, so think of the city itself like Tokyo meets LA.

Now then…on with the show!

* * *

><p>.<p>

.

Chapter 1 – Introductions

.

.

Fiddling nervously with her hair, Rin counted to ten in time with the elevator as it rose to the tenth floor in a desperate attempt to quell the nervous butterflies she could swear were trying to break free from her stomach.

"Come on, girl. It's just a summer internship, get a hold of yourself." she told herself quietly right before the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened, revealing the reception desk to Shikon Weekly, her favorite trends and gossip magazine.

"Hello, may I help you?" Kikyou, the receptionist, greeted with a friendly smile.

"Hi…" the seventeen-year-old greeted nervously. "My name's Rin, and I'm here-"

"Oh of course!" Kikyou interrupted, her warm smile infectious. "Miroku told me you were coming in today." she said half to herself before pushing a button on the intercom box on her desk.

"Yes?" a charming male voice answered.

"Your new intern is here Sir."

"Excellent!"

Rin couldn't help smiling a bit more to herself at how friendly everyone seemed. She'd heard that Shikon Weekly was a fabulous magazine to work for, that the owner's nephew, Miroku, who was in charge of the publication those days, was a very nice and caring man, though perhaps also a bit of a flirt. So long as he didn't straight up sexually harass her then Rin knew she could handle a little harmless flirting now and again.

"Rin Sato?" a debonair looking young man dressed in a well-tailored dark purple Armani suit greeted as he came around the corner.

"Yes Sir." she answered, bowing a little. "Mr. Kazaana, I presume?"

He waved his hand dismissingly.

"Mr. Kazaana is my uncle. Please, call me Miroku."

Nodding, Rin eagerly followed behind Miroku as he took her on a brief tour of his uncle Mushin's magazine.

"We're not you're a-typical trash talking gossip rag." he explained in that same charming tone of voice. "There is _one _big difference between us and our competitors. Do you know what that is?" he asked Rin, testing her slightly. She had been the one to apply for the internship, after all, so he had to make sure the girl wanted to work for them for the right reasons.

"Because you only tell the truth!" she answered enthusiastically. Miroku nodded, pleased.

When his uncle Mushin had first started Shikon Weekly it had been more of a trendy, what's hot and what's not type of magazine, filled with interviews and quotes from the who's who of Hollywood glamour all the way down to diet tips and where to land the best summer vacations on a budget. Of course, times change, but even though they'd since added what some of the old timers still called their 'Enquirer' column, Mushin refused to tarnish their reputation by becoming known as one of those tabloids that fabricated – or even simply ran with – unproven gossip and rumors. Oh sure, they told secrets, talked dirt, and snapped candid photos of famous people caught doing what they shouldn't be doing with people they shouldn't be seen with, but it was all _true_. They only reported known facts and refused to comment on not yet verified hearsay. In fact, that was the name of their 'tabloid' column; 'Just The Facts', by writer/photographer Inuyasha Takahashi.

"Pleased to meet you." Rin stated shyly as Miroku made introductions.

Inuyasha glanced up from his computer with a nonhostile yet clearly disinterested look in his inhuman, golden eyes.

"Keh." he greeted noncommittally before getting back to his work in obvious dismissal. Rin tried not to frown as Miroku continued with the tour.

"Don't take it personally, he's not much of a people-person." Miroku whispered to the girl once they were a fair distance away from Inuyasha's desk.

"It's my fault…I've never seen a hanyou in person before and being canine he could probably smell how nervous I was."

Rin had known of course that the photographer and writer for her favorite column of her favorite magazine was an inu-hanyou, but simply knowing that and actually meeting the guy in person were two entirely different things.

"I'm sure he didn't take it to heart. Believe me, he's used to it, as unfortunate as that fact is." Miroku soothed, thinking back on his decade-long companionship with the hanyou. He hardly knew anything about the guy outside of the office, and yet at the same time Miroku knew he was probably the closest thing Inuyasha had to a friend. He couldn't really say that he blamed him for being as closed off as he was, though, all things considered.

He still remembered the day Inuyasha had wandered in off the street looking for a job, applying for the position of photographer for their new upcoming column without a shred of experience, or nervousness. Not one to beat around the bush, especially considering the fact that a man of youkai blood wanting to work for a family of spiritualists was more than a little odd, if not down right suspicious, Mushin had cut right to the chase during Inuyasha's interview, of which Miroku had been present since Mushin had also been in the process of teaching his nephew what he needed to know to take over running the company.

"_So what makes you think you're the right man for this job?" _Mushin had asked the then nineteen-year-old hanyou, and with arms crossed and a smug grin that revealed his fangs Inuyasha's reply had been _"Because I am." _

The hanyou had then proceeded to list off his various, inhuman, talents. Sure, the guy had never operated a camera before, but really, how hard could that be? What he did know was how to _stalk_, how to stay hidden and how to sneak up on his prey. He could leap from rooftop to rooftop to follow a car rather than needing another moving vehicle, and with his sense of smell even if he did manage to lose sight of who he was following he could still track them anyway. Plainly spoken, Inuyasha could get paparazzi shots that _no _human could _ever _hope to achieve, plus his super-canine hearing would ensure that he didn't misinterpret a situation, nearly always able to hear what was being said to make sure the pictures were put in their correct context, whatever that might be. That fact alone had been enough to entice Mushin into being willing to at least give the teenager a shot to prove himself, pun intended. The photos he'd come back with had _definitely _proven the boy was worth his salt, at least behind the camera. It had been by accident that Mushin had later discovered that the hanyou could actually write his own editorials, too, having planned on letting Miroku handle that part until a new writer could be hired for the column, needing the photographer first and having thought at the time that he would only be the photographer, paid for his photos and then sent on his way while they did the rest of the work themselves.

Miroku had been writing his draft for the first story, but had had Inuyasha with him doing an interview of sorts for what the hanyou had seen and heard, and the half inu man, not really the best at human interaction, had kept on interrupting him and arguing so many times that in a moment of lost patience that was quite unbecoming for the young holy man, he'd actually snapped at the dog-eared photographer and said "Well then _you _write it!"

And so he had, and ten years later Inuyasha was a well-respected member of their team.

"It isn't weird for him working for you and your family?" Rin asked innocently, "Since you, your aunt and uncle all have spiritual powers?"

Shaking his head with a smile, Miroku explained, "When Uncle Mushin decided to give Inuyasha a chance, he just looked him dead in the eye, giving his aura a once over. He kind of has the ability to sense honesty or dishonesty in people, one of his spiritual powers you could say, and all he'd gotten out of Inuyasha was that he wanted to do well for himself. He was tired of working for minimum wage and felt he was worth more; he just needed a chance to prove it. When he asked Inuyasha if he was going to have a problem working for three spiritually powerful humans, the answer he'd given was rather cut and dry. He said he wouldn't have a problem with it so long as _we _didn't have a problem with _him_. That was when Uncle Mushin told him that if he wanted the job to come back in two days with photos and a story worthy of our magazine and he'd have the job. He did, and so he does. Our differences have never really been a problem."

_Most of the time, at least_… Miroku added in his mind, before quickly shaking the wayward thoughts free to smile brightly at the new intern and continue on with introductions as they headed towards the office located next to his own.

There Rin met Sango, whom Miroku introduced as his 'future fiancée', though the senior editor's unladylike snort seemed to say otherwise. With a twinkle of merriment in her chocolate brown eyes, Sango explained to Rin with a wink that she hadn't flat turned Miroku down because it was fun watching him try to woo her day in and day out. It provided entertainment for the entire staff, never knowing what he would say or do next. Laughing in turn, Miroku leaned in towards the teenager as though about to tell a secret before promising Rin loud enough for both ladies to hear that one day, he would get Sango to crack and say yes, and that when that day came he would whisk her away to elope right then and there before she had a chance to realize what she'd said and change her mind.

Rin couldn't help the giggle that bubbled up in her own throat at the sound of Sango and Miroku's light chuckling. She got the feeling that those two really did love each other, though whether or not there was any form of an actual relationship between them at that moment in time she couldn't tell. Maybe after working for the magazine long enough she could get herself into the inner gossip circles and find out.

The rest of her morning went by pleasantly enough, as Miroku continued to show her around and introduce her to the other members of the team. There were people like editors, graphics design artists and fashion photographers all working on their floor whom the readers usually never knew by name, the magicians behind the curtain that made all the magic happen, and then of course there were the other writers for the magazine, who were like mini-celebrities in their own right.

Yuka, the resident chef, wrote for a fun little culinary article called 'From Yuka's Cookbook' which always featured some recipe or another that was at least partially connected to the times. Near the beginning of summer she would have diet tips for fitting into that new bikini, and during the holidays Rin's mother was famous for trying out Yuka's various cookie and pie recipes. The seventeen-year-old could speak from personal experience that Yuka's recipes were always worth following. Ayumi was the go-to girl for hair and makeup tips, and Eri's fashion dos and don'ts were always right on the money. Of course, Rin was more than a little humbled to meet Kagome Higurashi, writer of the 'Dear Kagome' column, which primarily offered relationship advice though Kagome was always gracious enough to answer just about any and all questions that were sent her way. Far too many people wrote in to always make it to print so she also had a blog set up on the magazine's website. You could even ask a question via direct e-mail if you wanted to remain discreet.

"Don't worry, I know what it's like to be the new girl on campus. You'll be settled in in no time." Kagome assured Rin with a friendly smile and handshake. It was true, the miko had only been working for the magazine for three years, but everyone had taken an instant liking to her. Well…almost everyone.

"If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. That's what I'm here for." Kagome added with a warm smile, her deep blue-gray eyes sparkling with a wisdom that seemed beyond her mere twenty-five years.

"Thanks, I'll do that." Rin replied with a friendly wave as Miroku took her on her way, showing the girl the rest of their magazine.

Sighing, Kagome turned in her chair and got back to work on her computer; she still had a few more answers to post on her blog before calling it quits for lunch.

"She seems like a sweet girl." came Sango's voice from behind.

"I'm surprised you're not following them around to make sure Miroku doesn't do anything 'inappropriate'." Kagome teased, glancing up to smile at her best friend.

"I would say it's because I trust him, though we both know _that's _not true." Sango replied with a laugh that Kagome echoed. "But after what happened last year with Koharu, I'm sure he's learned his lesson." the editor added, and shuddering a bit in her seat Kagome silently hoped that Sango was right.

She remembered well the awkward drama that had been Koharu's tearful resignation, the intern quitting her position with their magazine after realizing that her 'feelings' for Miroku were one-sided, the emotional teenager having taken his flirting and teasing to heart. Kagome had tried to calm the girl down, to get her to see how impressionable young girls her age could be and how what she was feeling for Miroku was only a crush that would fade once she realized she didn't really know anything about the man, but Koharu had been beyond reasoning with. Ever since then Miroku had been on his best behavior, at least where 'impressionable youths' were concerned, and visitors. All of the women presently employed, brand new interns excluded, had been working there for at least a couple of years by that point, and as such they all knew their boss was a horrible flirt, though he was also a relatively harmless one. The last thing anyone wanted for the magazine's image was their boss getting charged with sexual harassment, though, and so Miroku really had cooled it a bit where he had to. He only physically groped Sango those days, and also sometimes Kagome, but that was only because he knew the miko could handle it. Personally, Kagome didn't mind it because she was a big girl, not so easy to offend, and besides, she knew that in reality he only had eyes for Sango. The whole office knew those two were in love. Any sexual comments he sent anyone else's way were just a side effect of how his brain functioned, his internal sensors in 'off' mode at least 90% of the time assuring that he almost always said whatever was on his mind, at least when it involved the opposite sex, though he would never in a million years actually _cheat_ on Sango, which Koharu had found out the hard way.

"Oh well, you know what they say: Unintentionally mislead a girl once, shame on her, unintentionally mislead a girl twice, shame on him." Kagome half-giggled with a shrug.

Shaking her head with an amused sigh, Sango turned and headed back to her office, letting her friend get back to work. They could talk more over lunch.

Watching Sango walk away, Kagome hoped for Miroku's sake that this new internship with Rin worked out and that the girl would decide to stay for the long haul. It wasn't really as if they _needed _a new office assistant, they weren't suffering from being short handed and Kagome certainly didn't mind getting her own coffee or buying her own pens and pencils, but they were sort of like one big happy family, and Kagome for one was looking forward to the prospect of their family growing again, like getting a new baby sister.

She still remembered when _she _had been the new 'baby sister' of the family. Her column wasn't new; the formally named 'Dear Sango' section of the magazine had been around for over ten years, and before that, Miroku's aunt Kaede had been the one who had first filled the roll for more than three decades, dating back to when her brother Mushin had first started the publication. Promoting his sister to senior editor upon their original editor's retirement had meant the need for a replacement for the relationship columnist, and when their nephew, who'd been working as a writer for various articles back then, had suggested his girlfriend Sango take the job, the taijiya had quickly proven herself worthy to the aging miko. Now, it was Kagome's turn, as Sango herself advanced to senior editor upon Kaede's retirement – with Miroku's help of course, though nobody had held that against her. Everyone loved Sango; even Inuyasha showed her a measurable amount of respect, despite the fact that she came from a long line of youkai slayers.

As for Kagome, she had already known Sango from outside of work; they were neighbors in the same apartment building and best girlfriends as a result, despite the age difference between them. Sango and Miroku were in their late thirties but that didn't stop them from treating Kagome like an equal. When Sango had mentioned in passing to the young miko that she would be needing to find and train her replacement because she would be leaving the column Kagome had jumped at the chance to work with her at the magazine, and despite the risk of Sango becoming her boss potentially destroying their friendship it had turned out to have the opposite effect. Nearly everyone else at the magazine had welcomed her with open arms, at least figuratively if not literally, though Yuka, Eri and Ayumi could all be huggers at times. Those three were closer to Kagome's age and she considered them all close friends as well, though nobody could ever replace Sango's position in her heart. It was Sango whom Kagome knew she could count on whenever she needed a shoulder to cry on, which was more often than the miko would have liked to admit.

_You'd think that somebody people can turn to for relationship advice would do a little better in the love department themselves_… Kagome sighed to herself as she finished posting answers to her blog.

She'd had to qualify for the position, of course. Sango hadn't just arbitrarily made Kagome her replacement because they were friends; that could have spelled disaster if the miko had turned out to give horrible advice. Instead, Sango had put Kagome through the same process she would have done for anyone else, giving the girl several scenarios and hearing what she had to say, offering a few suggestions here and there though for the most part Kagome was a natural. Sango had known she would be, of course, since Kagome had always been there for her whenever she'd been feeling doubts about her so-called relationship with Miroku. It was purely thanks to Kagome and her ability to sense a person's heart that she hadn't skinned the monk alive by that point for his non-stop womanizing. Kagome knew that Miroku's feelings for Sango were genuine, and she also knew that he'd cool it with the playful flirting once and for all the second Sango let him put a ring on her finger. The slayer was just enjoying making him sweat it out a bit as payback for her earlier doubts about his feelings, which wasn't really genuine payback since he knew Sango _would _say yes when she was ready, once again courtesy of the twenty-five-year-old miko. As for the 'Dear Kagome' column itself, readers knew the miko wasn't a licensed therapist or psychologist; she was more like the world's BFF, somebody you could turn to as a friend to get advice from if there was no one else in your life who filled that role.

"_Dear Kagome,_

_My boyfriend of six years still hasn't popped the question! I keep dropping little hints, but he's either oblivious or deliberately ignoring them. I really don't think he's cheating on me, but then on the other hand if he's devoted to me and only me then why doesn't he want to marry me? Help!_

_- Stressed-out Girlfriend"_

Sighing, Kagome glanced at the clock before gently setting her hands on her keyboard, staring at the words on the screen for a moment longer as she allowed herself to _feel _the emotion that had been present at the time of their creation.

"_Dear Stressed-out Girlfriend,_

_First let me express that failure to propose in and of itself is not, in my opinion, one of the major warning signs of infidelity, so if you honestly don't think he's cheating on you, if there are no other red flags or warning bells going off in that regard, then I'm sure you're right and he's not. Commitment issues don't necessarily constitute loyalty issues. He's probably comfortable in your present relationship because since you are __not__ married or engaged, he feels that he's technically not __stuck__ with you, which in turn allows him to relax and be happy with your company. That being said, if you are not satisfied allowing things to progress forever the way they have been, if you want that ring and that walk down the aisle, then I think the time for 'dropping hints' is over. True, he could just be oblivious and will eventually catch on, but if he's already aware and trying to ignore your hints then letting that go on any longer will get you nowhere. The number one relationship killer is lack of communication, so if all else fails, and you think he's just clueless, pop the question yourself, but not in a stressful, pressure building sort of way. If he can't muscle up the courage to ask __you__, then the last thing you want to do is give him the straight forward 'yes' or 'no' question that'll most likely result in a deer-in-the-headlights expression followed by no answer at all as his brain runs around in circles screaming. If you can get past the idea of having him romantically surprising you by suddenly drop down on one knee one day, then it might be time to sit him down on the couch and have a serious discussion about your relationship. Tell him how you feel, and ask him how he feels in return. It might feel like it kills the romance to think 'well we're already together, so we may as well get married since it doesn't really change anything' but if it's the big CHANGE that he's afraid of, then assuring him that everything really will remain the same in your relationship in that regard is what he needs to hear. It's stereotyped that everything changes once you get married, and he might think he's got such a perfect thing going right now that he doesn't want to risk screwing up your relationship by fixing what isn't broken. That doesn't mean he doesn't want to marry __you__, it's much more likely that it's simply the act of getting married __at all__ that he's nervous about. But if he really loves you and only you, and has no desire to ever stop being with you, well then he's got nothing to be afraid of, and neither do you. Good luck!_

_- Kagome"_

Signing out of her account, Kagome exhaled slowly while rubbing her temples, her eyes starting to get blurry from staring at her computer screen for too long. Sensing her friend coming back up on her from behind, Kagome was not startled when Sango suddenly chimed in with "Ready to eat?" from less than two feet away.

"Absolutely." she responded with a smile, standing up and grabbing her purse. "Any ideas?"

"I've been meaning to check out that new ramen shop that opened up down the block, if that sounds all right?"

Mentally going over what remained of her finances until payday, Kagome nodded and said, "Actually, that sounds perfect."

Heading past a few of her coworkers' cubicles, Kagome responded to the pleasant "Hello"s and "Have a nice lunch"es that were sent her and Sango's way. Coming upon one desk in particular, Kagome smiled shyly as she studied the silver-haired man hard at work clicking through a folder of photographs on his computer. One of his triangular dog-ears shifted back towards her direction, almost as if picking up on the sound of her nervous smile – or maybe it was just the pounding of her heart – and she blushed a little, grateful for once that he still had his back to her.

Clearing her throat, Kagome shot her friend a quick glare at the silent snicker Sango sent her way at her obvious nervousness. The taijiya knew all too well how Kagome felt about their half canine photographer.

"Sango and I are heading out to Hungry Ninja Ramen, want anything?" she asked as conversationally as possible, mentally praising herself for sounding normal.

Inuyasha, who had been absently clicking through a bunch of old photos in the hopes of looking busy when he first sensed Kagome's approach, had to forcefully bite his tongue when the first thing that came to mind was the rather nasty retort, _Why, think I can't even afford my own ramen? _

He sighed.

The miko clearly wasn't trying to take pity upon him as if he honestly couldn't afford to feed himself; she had to have an inkling of what his annual salary was considering they worked for the same damn magazine, after all. But her words hadn't been sarcastic, either, as if possibly implying that even though they worked for the same company he was paid significantly less because he was _hanyou_. Maybe…maybe her offer was meant to be genuine, but that didn't mean she _really _meant it. Miroku's words begging him to _be nice _to the girl echoed loudly in his ears, and he exhaled slowly, telling himself for the umpteenth time that Kagome most likely didn't have any ulterior motives for always trying to be so nice to him. It just confounded him to no end that she _was _always trying to be so damn nice to him, despite the fact that her body language was literally _screaming _at him how uncomfortable she was just barely being in his presence. Maybe that was why, though. Maybe she just couldn't shake how she felt about him being half youkai, but at the same time she had enough decency to feel guilty about it, too, and so she tried to make up for her obvious discomfiture with extra acts of kindness, regretful that she couldn't completely remove the ingrained racism she had been raised up with.

_Keh, whatever_… he mentally snorted. _It'd be better if the bitch just admitted she couldn't stand the sight of me and stayed the fuck away_.

"No thanks." he grumbled finally, polite enough for himself, never once turning away from his computer screen to look at her. Perhaps if he had, then he would have noticed the sincerity in her eyes, or the way her smile wavered ever so slightly with the sting of rejection.

"Okay." she responded, still in that same pleasant tone of voice, before quickly heading out the rest of the way with Sango.

The taijiya waited until they were in the elevator to ask her friend, "Why do you keep doing this to yourself, Kagome?"

"I wish I knew…" the miko answered with a sigh. "If I weren't the writer of my column, I would write in with a question to myself."

Sango laughed a bit at that, then looping her arm around the younger girl's shoulders, she said, "What is it you always tell people? You can't have real feelings for somebody you don't know anything about?"

"But I want to _get _to know him." Kagome protested lightly. "Besides," she added with a playful pout, "That rule doesn't apply to me since I can feel auras."

"So your advice to everyone else out there is 'do what I say, not what I do'?" Sango teased.

Lightly jabbing her friend's side with her elbow, Kagome stuck her tongue out at the older woman when she giggled, and then retorted with, "Just 'cause I don't know anything _about _the guy doesn't mean I can't feel what's in his soul."

"Yeah yeah yeah…show off." Sango mumbled quietly, not really jealous of Kagome's miko abilities since she had a few taijiya tricks up her own sleeves, though they didn't have anything to do with reading a person's soul.

Retracting her arm as the elevator doors opened, Sango thought in silence for a moment as she and her friend exited the building and made their way down the street towards the ramen shop.

"Well…" she finally spoke up after a moment. "I might be a bit rusty, but my advice to you under these circumstances would be to just keep on being yourself, then. If you want to keep on trying to strike up conversations with him, or have lunch with him, or whatever it is you always try that he always shoots down, then keep it up. He's all closed off for a reason, but sooner or later it's got to seep into that thicker than average canine skull of his that you don't _ignore _him like everyone else does. He'll notice you noticing him, just give him time."

"Didn't somebody say something once about how doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results is the definition of insanity?" Kagome grumbled sarcastically, earning a chuckle from her friend.

"So you're crazy in love." Sango replied with a shrug and a wink. Kagome snorted before getting a serious look in her eyes.

"Sometimes I think he thinks I just take pity on him, the way I try to talk to him and be nice; sometimes I feel like he's exasperated with me and so I try to get him to see that I'm being genuine, I don't think of him as a charity case. But then other times I'm sure he _must _know how I really feel about him and that it's _that_ knowledge that's putting him off, 'cause he just doesn't feel the same way." She sighed. "Screw souls, I wish I could read _minds_."

"You could just _ask _him, you know."

"Oh yeah," Kagome replied with a roll of her eyes. "That'd go over _real _well, I can see it now." Crinkling her nose, she thought about the first time they'd met for a moment and then added, "It's probably just my miko powers that are still the biggest issue; we know that's what'd bothered him in the beginning. Miroku had even warned me before my first day that he might be extra standoffish around me because I'm a miko, but he'd also said 'at first' and 'until he got to know me'. It's been _three years_, Sango…" Kagome whined semi-playfully to her friend.

"Hey, if you really think about it, Inuyasha _has _gotten a lot nicer to you over the last three years." the older woman pointed out as they took their seats in the small noodle shop.

"That's true…" Kagome murmured thoughtfully, skimming the menu.

When she'd first joined up with the company three summers ago Inuyasha had been downright rude to her. The first time they'd met she'd been so struck by his exotic beauty that she'd barely been able to squeak out a pitiful hello as she'd held her hand out for him to shake, nearly giddy at just the thought of getting to touch the hand of such a sex-god, and then he'd proceeded to glare at her as if she'd flipped him the bird with that hand. He'd immediately turned and stormed away from her, and Kagome, who'd originally thought that he'd felt her attraction to him and had been offended for that reason, had later heard it from Sango that Inuyasha had had a bone to pick with Miroku for letting his girlfriend bring in 'that miko'. Sure, Kaede had been a miko, too, Miroku's whole family was ripe with spiritual powers, but every family's powers were different, just like every different species of youkai possessed a different type of youki signature. Kagome had figured then that there must just be something about her miko powers in particular that rubbed him the wrong way, a clash of energies, and so as a courtesy she'd tried her best to give him a wide birth, at first, so as not to unnecessarily disturb him. Maybe he could sense that _she _had the ability to sense auras, and felt like her 'scanning' him was an invasion of privacy, even though it was something that she couldn't really turn off all the way and therefore she wasn't really doing it on purpose.

Despite the fact that she'd immediately been crushing on him something horrible, Kagome had also known that she wouldn't be a very good relationship advice giver if she couldn't even follow her own guidelines, one of her most basic but also firm beliefs being that there was no such thing as love at first sight. There was _lust _at first sight, most definitely, and there was nothing wrong with two people who were so immediately attracted to each other going for it, exploring the possibility of a deeper relationship developing as a result. Lust at first sight could _lead _to love, if you were lucky, but it was just not possible to actually _love _somebody you didn't even know, and even though she could feel on an empathic level what made up a person's soul, that still didn't mean she _knew _them. All she could really tell about any given person was whether they were being genuine or wearing a fake mask, depending upon what type of personality they outwardly portrayed. She could tell if someone was kindhearted and giving or greedy and selfish, shy or snobby, bitter and cruel or hesitant and guarded; Inuyasha fell under that latest category. Kagome could sense that he was lonely, that he was really a good guy at heart but he didn't trust easily. She wanted to be there for him, but that really wouldn't be possible until she figured out how to get him to let her _in_.

Focusing on the fact that she didn't really know anything _about _the guy, she'd made it a point to try and get to know him, doing her best to ignore her sexual attraction to him in the hopes of at least becoming his friend, but that process was incredibly slow going, especially since he was only actually in the office a couple of days a week, spending the rest of his time in the field. That meant that in the last three years she'd only ever actually seen him two-fifths as often as everyone else. At least that made the 'three years' part sound a little bit better, when she thought about it mathematically and realized that she'd really only been in the same building as him 312 days out of the last 1095; when looking at it _that _way she hadn't even spent one full year with the guy yet, and of that time they hardly ever spoke more than a handful of words to each other. No wonder she hadn't really gotten anywhere yet.

He _never_ socialized with anyone outside of work – which made her feel a little bit better because at least it wasn't just her he was avoiding, in that regard – but so anything and everything she could ever hope to learn about the man had to happen on company time. She'd actually learned quite a lot about his personality over the years just by reading his articles, something she'd had the guilty pleasure of partaking in even before joining the team. He actually allowed very little personality to show through in his narrations, if any showed through at all, but that in and of itself was telling because it told her he was professional; he cared about his work. Oft times he would run his 'breaking news' a month behind the competition, with article headers like 'What _really _happened' or 'Who was right and who was wrong' as he broke down and dissected the stories that had been run in other tabloids. If he had been there, if he'd taken the same photos somebody else had taken, Kagome and everyone else for that matter knew he would tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If a celebrity was having dinner with somebody unidentified, he would even admit that he didn't know who that person was, if he couldn't find out, rather than just making something up…but heaven help the famous people who blurted their dirty laundry within his hanyou hearing range.

On the other side of the coin, sometimes celebrities who'd been trash talked in other papers would actually go out of their way to contact Shikon Weekly, offering Inuyasha exclusive interviews in order to set the record straight. Mushin used to be the one to conduct most interviews, since he could sense dishonesty in people, but Inuyasha could _smell_ it if someone was lying, and he'd purposefully made that one fact about himself public knowledge; nobody dared lie to the hanyou's face, not when it involved his work and his reputation. That he had earned so much respect amongst Hollywood society, almost nobody ever publicly badmouthing him for his mixed heritage, Kagome not only respected and admired him as well, but she also felt an incredible swell of pride in her heart at the knowledge. Sometimes she got the impression that Inuyasha thought she felt sorry for him, but really, nothing could be further from the truth. Sure yeah, she did sometimes feel bad for the guy, because he just seemed so lonely, and she could easily see the old scars he kept buried just below the surface, but really, she'd say he'd done pretty well for himself, all things considered, and in a relatively short period of time, too. Fate had dealt him a cruel hand, tipped with talons, but he'd turned around and used them to claw his way to the top.

_That's my Inuyasha_… she thought wistfully, before mentally scolding herself for such foolish thoughts. Even though it was true that he'd kind of mellowed out a bit over the last three years, it was beyond obvious that he didn't really want to have anything to do with her.

_If doing the same thing over and over again makes me insane, then so be it_… she thought wryly then. Sure, if someone else came to her with a similar situation she might tell them to try and move on, that you couldn't make somebody like you if they really didn't, and there were plenty of fish in the sea, blah blah blah. But the fact of the matter was that she was still young; she had plenty of time to come to grips with reality and 'move on' later, after it became abundantly clear that he would _never _take an interest in her. As far as Kagome was concerned, that day would come when he flat out told her to her face to leave him the fuck alone, and even back when he'd been a total asshole to her those particular words had never left his mouth. Asking harshly 'Why do _you _care?' when asked where he was headed for lunch, and snapping with 'What's it to you?' when asked if he'd had a nice weekend might _imply _he wanted her to leave him alone, but they were not synonymous.

_He was closed off and defensive, but maybe it really surprised him that I'd asked_… she pondered thoughtfully as she and Sango made their way back to their building in companionable silence.

"Hey guys." Kikyou greeted around a mouthful of sub sandwich as Sango and Kagome exited the elevator on their floor.

Giggling, Kagome approached the reception desk with a playful frown.

"Kikyou, don't you ever _leave _for lunch?"

"Why?" she replied with a shrug. "Off the clock is off the clock. My chair is comfy."

"Uh-huh…" the miko replied, leaning over to spy the girl's computer screen.

"Busted!" Kagome teased; Kikyou had a youtube video on pause.

"Oh please, like Miroku would care."

"He'd just be disappointed that it's a G-rated video." Sango chimed in, and all three girls chuckled a bit before the senior editor and relationship columnist headed past reception and back to work.

"I've never met a girl quite so chipper before." Kagome commented offhandedly, the miko able to tell that Kikyou's perpetual good mood wasn't an act.

"Well can you blame her?" Sango asked semi-rhetorically before heading for her office.

Kagome nodded to herself, knowing that Sango was right. Both girls were fully aware of Kikyou's situation; the receptionist talked about it easily whenever somebody asked.

Like Miroku and Kagome, Kikyou's family also came from a long line of spiritualists, but unlike her boss' family and miko coworker, who had all decided to do what they wanted in life rather than devote themselves exclusively to the cloth, Kikyou's parents allowed no such freedoms among her spiritually powerful siblings. They were a very _traditional _family, devoted to the same shrine for generation upon generation. It was only by some sheer miracle – or tragedy, as Kikyou's father had put it – that their powers of reiki had somehow not been passed down to her, the youngest daughter. After years of grueling tests to become a miko like her sisters had surprisingly revealed the girl possessed virtually no spiritual power whatsoever, and would therefore be quite useless as a genuine miko, her father had _reluctantly _allowed her, and her alone, to live a 'normal' life away from the shrine, since she _was_,essentially, an ordinary woman. Nobody would want her for blessings, and she couldn't produce holy wards. Keeping her on hand would have been a charity case, and the girl's father had at least been proud, at first, that she'd had the desire to be _useful_, wanting to go where she was needed so as not to rely on the handouts of others. That wasn't to say she was above accepting assistance where assistance was offered, though, such as an insider helping her land the perfect job. Kikyou had known of Kaede through spiritual circles; she'd always secretly admired the elderly miko for proving that you could _be _a miko but also have a regular career at the same time. Kikyou had felt humbled but not shamed to ask for Kaede's help, and the woman had delivered. When Shikon Weekly had been hiring for a new receptionist word of the jobless girl had quickly reached Miroku's ears, and being the gentleman that he was, he'd immediately offered Kikyou the position per his aunt's recommendation.

Nobody had ever seen a receptionist with quite so bright, and _genuine_, a smile as Kikyou always wore, but growing up all she'd ever really wanted was to be a normal, ordinary girl, not subjected to the life of a miko, and while her parents acted like the kami had forsaken her, the rejected child, Kikyou knew the truth; the kami had _blessed _her, granting her wish to be normal. It was just icing on the cake that she worked around other spiritualists who flat out chose to live normal lives despite their spiritual powers, 'traitors' as her father called them in private, not to mention a hanyou! While Kikyou's mother was simply happy for her daughter in that she was happy, her father _loathed _the fact that she worked for Shikon Weekly, not because of what her job was but because of who her boss and coworkers were, and she loved her job all the more because of it.

Thinking about Kikyou's family, Kagome shook her head a little to herself in relief that her own family hadn't been so strict. Her grandfather was mildly disappointed that she hadn't wanted to devote 100% of her life to the family shrine as a shrine miko, but she _did _help out during holidays, and she visited often. She'd moved out of the shrine and into her own apartment at age eighteen, wanting to get a taste of 'normal' life herself, though she never slacked off in her spiritual training. It helped that she'd quickly become friends with her neighbor Sango, the woman basically in the same boat as her since she'd left her family's exterminator business to join the team at Shikon Weekly. She too still helped out her family once in a while, to keep her skills sharp. It was important to know and embrace your roots, but it _was _the 21st century, and trend magazines were important, too!

Snickering to herself at where her thoughts had wandered, Kagome headed back over to her desk, grinning to herself as she spotted Inuyasha still hard at work at his own, which was conveniently set in such a location that she naturally walked past it on her way in and out. She'd _really _have to go out of her way to avoid approaching his desk upon entering and exiting, and she wasn't about to go and do something like _that_.

_I might not know very much about the guy, but one thing I __do__ know is he loves ramen_… she thought to herself as she approached, remembering the few times over the last three years she'd spotted him eating lunch in the lounge. Though few and far between, he had always been eating cups of instant ramen at those times, and unless he was secretly scrimping away every single penny he earned to one day buy a four-story mansion overlooking the ocean then there was no way he was eating Maruchan out of necessity.

Knowing he could both hear and smell her approach and that there was no chance she was inadvertently sneaking up on him, Kagome chimed in seemingly out of nowhere as she approached his desk with, "You really need to try Hungry Ninja Ramen sometime, they're really good."

Kagome was honestly expecting a noncommittal grunt of some sort in reply, he was notorious for responding with sound effects when he didn't really have anything to say to you otherwise, so it caught the miko completely off guard when he actually glanced her way for the briefest of seconds before refocusing his eyes on his computer screen and mumbling a quick "Eaten there before. They actually _are_ good." in agreement.

Just the sound of his voice had her heart rate increasing, which she was sure he could hear with those damn, adorable ears of his. Maybe it was the fact that, as far as he was concerned with his hyper senses, she was always practically throwing herself at him that had turned him off to her. She had to show him that she wasn't like Koharu; sure she was attracted to him, but that didn't mean she was about to throw herself at his feet and beg him to love her. So quickly getting her frantic heartbeat back under control, Kagome murmured a quick "Let me know if you'd ever like to go there together sometime." before turning and scurrying away. Or at least in her mind she felt like she was scurrying away like a spooked rabbit, outwardly she strolled back to her desk as calmly as she could muster, as if her words of open invitation for lunch were in truth as casual as they had sounded.

Making it back to her desk, the miko exhaled slowly and then signed back into her blog page. If Sango had still been with her she would have felt the urge to squeal girlishly with her friend, so in retrospect it was a good thing that Sango had gone her separate way immediately upon the two of them passing Kikyou's desk. Sango had said on many occasions while the pair hung out in one of their two apartments that she loved her girl talk with Kagome, that it made her feel like she was in high school again, but the miko knew that there was a time and a place and she couldn't turn _work _into high school. Schooling her features then, as it were, she got back to work in that moment, officially putting her own dysfunctional love life on the back burner to help everybody else with theirs.

oooOooo

Blinking as he watched her walk away, Inuyasha shook his head in bafflement once Kagome was around the corner and out of sight. He would never understand that girl. Here she was practically having a heart attach, like he was going to suddenly lunge and attack her at any given moment, and then she went and offered _again _that they could eat lunch together sometime?

_I wonder how freaked out she'd get if I actually took her up on it_… he mused darkly, half considering inviting her out just to see if she could make it through the whole hour without pissing her pants.

It wasn't as if he really couldn't stand the girl…aside from the fact that she was a miko who _clearly _had a problem with _him _being a hanyou. Aside from that minor detail she seemed nice enough. She certainly wasn't hard on the eyes, or nose, and scent was a _big _factor considering he was half inu-youkai.

_I actually really like the way she smells…at least when her natural scent isn't tainted with anxiety_.

It had been a lot worse back in the beginning, when she'd first joined the team. He still remembered that first day, and how utterly freaked out she'd been by his appearance, barely able to hold out her hand for him to shake in greeting, as if terrified even to touch his claw-tipped fingers. She hadn't even been able to look at him without her heart practically flying right out of her chest, the poor dear, so frightened as she'd obviously been. Easily sensing her miko powers it hadn't been hard to guess why she'd had such a strong reaction to his inhuman appearance, and he'd had a bone to pick with Miroku about it, bringing in a spiritual girl who had such negative feelings about youkai. How was that fair to anyone? Of course, Miroku had attempted to assure him that Kagome held no such prejudices, that perhaps she had been a bit startled by his unconventional appearance but that she by no means would treat him differently because of it. Snorting in disbelief, Inuyasha had silently vowed to leave the girl alone so long as _she_ left _him _alone, which she'd done in the beginning, before apparently deciding she was being rude and thus starting what he thought of as her personal validation campaign. She wasn't a racist so long as she spoke kindly to him and invited him out on lunch dates she knew he'd never accept.

He snorted again in that moment just thinking about it.

Honestly, it wasn't as if he could really blame the girl for her feelings, when he thought about it, the miko having probably grown up in a rather strict, traditionally spiritual environment that fortified the popular belief that beings of demonic blood couldn't be trusted. She was obviously trying her best to ignore her childhood teachings, but something you'd believed your whole life wasn't so easily rejected. And so yeah sure, he worked for a reputable magazine, but doing what? He was a _hunter_, if you wanted to put it into perspective. The creepiness behind what he actually did for a living just _had _to reinforce her inner most feelings and beliefs. He made his living by following unsuspecting victims and 'capturing' their images; you never knew where he might be hiding, what he'd see or what he'd hear. Celebrity circles even called him the Canine Phantom, because he'd come and go before you'd even know he was there. Nobody racially badmouthed him for being half youkai, but they all had a healthy fear of him because of it. Just, instead of fearing that a monster was lurking in the shadows that might spring out and eat them, they feared that a monster was lurking in the shadows with a camera, which he was. The way he looked at it, _especially _knowing that they all knew who he was those days and that he might be out there, any famous person foolish enough to be out in the open doing something tabloid worthy got what they deserved when he caught them red handed, but that was neither here nor there. The hype surrounding his inhuman abilities had certainly contributed to Kagome's fluster when she'd stuttered through saying something along the lines of having heard so much about him. She certainly hadn't struck him as a star-struck groupie.

While it was true there were a few freaks out there that were actually _into _youkai and hanyou, the general human population considered the notion of being with a youkai only one step away from bestiality. It wasn't _illegal_, because youkai were intelligent and could willingly consent – and were in truth usually the dominant one of the relationship, when there was one – but legalities not withstanding, whether or not such a union was _immoral_ depended solely upon whom you asked, and most people who were against the notion of 'being' with a youkai made no exception for hanyou in that regard. Legally human or not, hanyou usually got bundled together in the youkai category when it came to people's bedroom preferences. He'd actually had what most people would call a 'youkai whore' or 'youkai freak' throw herself at him, once, while he'd been on the job at a nightclub in the hopes of spotting somebody famous, and he'd bluntly told the slut that she could take her fetishes elsewhere. Just because he was a dog didn't mean he blindly chased after pussy; he would _not _become some random skank's plaything. He'd rather stay a virgin for the rest of his life than submit to some dominant bitch who thought he'd roll over at the bat of an eyelash.

_At least Kagome doesn't have a youkai fetish_…

Glancing up once again in the direction the miko had disappeared to around the bend, a small smirk slowly lifted up the corners of his mouth, revealing his fangs. Kagome _definitely _didn't have a youkai fetish. He wasn't sure what he would have done if the new girl, instead of being skittish around him, had blatantly ogled him before trying to seduce him. He would take skittish over skanky any day. While he supposed he should be flattered, maybe even grateful, that there were some women out there who apparently found his disfiguring looks attractive, he just wasn't interested in a purely sexual relationship; especially one where he was less of an equal partner in bed and more of a toy present solely for the woman's enjoyment. If sex were _that _important then he'd just go get himself a hooker during his human night and be done with it, but it wasn't worth the risk of leaving his apartment on that night just to get laid when his hand worked just fine. You never knew when some radical hate group might be watching, and there were some people out there, although they usually limited their complaints to the Internet, that were none too pleased with the life he'd made for himself. Just because the reputable world of Hollywood society never publicly had anything negative to say about him for being a hanyou didn't mean that _nobody _had a problem with it.

Sighing, Inuyasha knew that was hardly any genuine cause for concern. The only time he could even theoretically be in the remotest amount of danger would be if he left his apartment while in human form, and so he never did, problem solved. He usually never left his apartment _at all _when he wasn't working, so nobody could calculate his time of weakness by monitoring which nights he stayed indoors either, assuming he was currently being monitored, which he _wasn't_. You couldn't stalk a stalker, or at least not one as skilled as _he _was, without them knowing it. Besides, there was nothing in the science books that could even conclusively suggest his time of weakness was at _night_. Every hanyou was different, and even though the fact that hanyou _had_ a time when they became human was pretty much public knowledge by that point – it'd been one of the biggest factors in passing the legislation that now made hanyou legally recognized humans – there was simply no rhyme or reason that the humans could determine which dictated any given hanyou's biological clock.

Sighing again, Inuyasha allowed his thoughts to wander back in the direction of a certain black-haired miko, wondering what _she _would think if she saw his human side. Would she think that was the real him? That deep down inside he was a human man whose outward appearance was merely tainted with demonic filth? That was what most people who were okay with hanyou thought, that they were all truly humans deep down inside, proven by the fact that they occasionally shed their youkai blood. A hanyou could even be exposed to levels of purifying energy that would be fatal to a full-blooded youkai and it merely turned them human, though after a few years of 'voluntary' experiments it was _unfortunately _(note the sarcasm) discovered by the human government that such purifications could not be made permanent. No matter how strongly you zapped a hanyou they'd eventually become a hanyou again, exposure to the purifying energies apparently triggering their natural human transformation as their youkai blood instinctively used that method of disappearing in order to save itself from the purification. Honestly, Inuyasha couldn't say if he had been relieved or disappointed when he'd read that in the history books, that hanyou could not be permanently purified into ordinary humans. While he _hated _turning human, hated his weakened senses, frail body and roller coaster emotions, he was pretty sure he could _eventually _get used to it if it was done in exchange for being _normal_.

_Though, then again, maybe the 'emotions' part wouldn't be worth it_… he thought then, shuddering at the mere thought of constantly being plagued by thoughts of Kagome day in and day out, if he had no youkai blood with which to seek emotional shelter.

For nearly the last three years he'd spent his human nights lying awake with thoughts of the miko dancing around in his head, usually against his will though sometimes he just didn't fight it. He couldn't even really say what it was about the girl that refused to leave him be, the miko even plaguing his subconscious as he'd often dream of her when he eventually fell asleep. Those dreams weren't limited to his human nights, though, loath as he was to admit his human emotions were _not _the true culprit here. So what _was _it that had him so drawn to her, if his youkai side was affected too? She always tried so hard to make an effort, to be nice to him when everyone else pretty much left him alone; was that it? At first he'd tried to discourage her from wasting her time with such foolish endeavors, not censoring his tongue in the hopes of tipping her off to the fact that he knew her kindness was all an act. He'd thought that if he could just piss her off enough times that she'd realize that he wasn't worth her charity; if she thought he was just an asshole then she could justify to herself that the reason she avoided him was _because _he was an asshole, instead of it being because he was a hanyou, thus still sparing her from her guilty conscience. He knew she was trying so hard to not be a racist; it wasn't her fault if she'd grown up in a prejudice environment after all, and so he'd thought it would be win/win in the end if he gave her an excuse to hate him for a reason other than his youkai blood. Then she could leave him alone with a clear conscience and he could in turn enjoy the peace and quiet that would ensue from her leaving him alone.

_The best laid plans_…_feh_…

Rolling his head around his shoulders and popping his neck a little, Inuyasha silently vowed to get the girl out of his head for at least the remainder of the day.

_I need to eat…food will clear my head_…

Of course, he immediately thought about having lunch at Hungry Ninja Ramen, which completely screwed over his plan to stop thinking of Kagome.

Looking back over the last three years he couldn't really say when it was, specifically, that he'd finally decided to cool off the asshole routine, but he just didn't want to be such a total and utter dick to her any longer. Sure, snarky comebacks were often the first thing on the tip of his tongue whenever she spoke to him, but that had less to do with her and more to do with the way he'd _always _been, with _everyone_; a survival instinct he'd picked up, one could say. He just usually tried really hard to damp down that side of himself those days; he knew he wouldn't get very far in life being a total dickhead to everyone he met. Deciding to let himself be an asshole to Kagome, that'd been less of an act and more of just not biting his tongue, which he now did. Of course, he knew Miroku was a big deciding factor in that equation, the monk having told him on more than a few occasions to stop being so mean to Kagome, though the miko had never once actually complained to Miroku about him as far as he knew. In fact, looking back on it, she hadn't really seemed all that put off by his attitude at all, as if bound and determined to shower him with kindness until he stopped being a dick to her. So did that mean that she'd 'won'?

"Keh, yeah right." he grumbled aloud. Maybe he'd cooled it a bit, but that didn't mean he was actually starting to fall for her act. She was just being nice because she was telling herself to be nice to him, and he was sure she'd shit her pants if he ever actually approached her with the intention of taking her up on one of her many offers for lunch.

_Well…being a bastard obviously didn't work, so maybe I should kill her with kindness, instead_._ Get her back at her own game_… he silently contemplated. Oh, but was he tempted! Just to see her knocked down a peg, it'd be worth it to endure the hell-hour that that lunch break would surely become, if he could use the opportunity to call her on her shit. Maybe he should-

"Inuyasha…" came Miroku's voice as the houshi approached his photographer's desk, and Inuyasha sighed in relief, honestly grateful for the distraction.

"Yeah? What's up?"

"Hitomi's got a problem, check it out." the monk stated, slapping a copy of one of the worst trash talking pieces of garbage magazines that existed on the hanyou's desk.

Inuyasha whistled, reading the headline out loud. "Award winning actress Hitomi Watanabe is really a kitsune in disguise." On the cover was a partially out of focus candid shot of the actress getting out of a limo with what appeared to be a fox tail sticking out of the back of her dress.

"This is a serious charge, man, how can they get away with this shit?" Inuyasha grumbled. The image was clearly photo-shopped, not that that would matter to the people who ate what that rag had to spew for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even the fact that _other magazines _discredited what was written on those pages of crap didn't detour their hardcore followers. They just tossed out one simple retort: cover up.

_Feh! Like I would go along with a cover up if she really __were__ a kitsune, which she ain't! I've met her! _

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do." Inuyasha said, standing up.

This was what Miroku loved about the hanyou. Even though he could be a bit testy at times, he didn't fool around when it came to getting justice, and a jab like this was like a jab at all of them.

"Get on the phone and call the Goshinboku Network, they owe us one and so getting an in-studio appearance on the six o'clock news tonight shouldn't be too hard to swing. I'll get on the phone with Watanabe and tell her to get her ass down here before the shit hits the fan. We'll do a live demonstration on the news of how your ofuda don't affect her, everyone knows you're a monk."

"What if they think I'm faking it and made a bogus ofuda?"

Inuyasha smirked, flashing his fangs.

"That's where _I _come in. Just do me a favor and keep it mild enough that it only burns and sparks a little. I've got no desire to turn human on live TV."

Miroku blinked in surprise for a moment before quickly realizing that a live demonstration of the power of the ofuda on a being of known demonic blood really was the best way to validate its authenticity. He could slap it on Hitomi's forearm, and then after a few seconds to reveal she had no reaction to its power Inuyasha could then try to remove it, thus demonstrating he couldn't touch it without getting zapped. On the one hand it seemed a little foolish to go to such extremes, but a rumor like _that _had to be nipped in the bud before it ruined her career, not to mention their own reputation. Shape-shifting youkai disguising themselves as humans was not entirely unheard of, and a kitsune somehow miraculously, successfully climbing the Hollywood ladder would be the biggest prank of all time within fox society. It was actually feasible, except they all _knew _Hitomi from a previous interview and therefore knew it was total BS.

"I'm on it." Miroku said quickly before dashing off to make that phone call.

Inuyasha easily got a hold of the actress, the frazzled woman recognizing their office number on her cell's Caller ID. Immediately agreeing to the plan she made preparations to spend the majority of her day hiding out in their office so as to avoid being hounded by all the other paparazzi out here, her agent instructed to inform anyone else who called that she'd already granted exclusive interview rights to Shikon Weekly.

Popping her head around the corner, Rin hesitantly approached Inuyasha's desk with the file Sango'd handed her to give to the hanyou, the girl having waited until he was done with his phone call to make her approach.

"Is it always so exciting around here?" she asked with a shy smile as she handed the file over.

Taking the file, Inuyasha made mental note that Rin didn't seen _too _nervous about his claws; her initial reaction to him seemed average for someone who'd known in advance that he was hanyou and had tried to prepare themselves for what he might look like.

"On a good day." he replied with a crooked grin to the intern before sending her on her way. She was an okay kid, though he wasn't interested in making friends.

oooOooo

It didn't take long for the buzz of what was going on to circulate throughout the entire office, and even the writers who hardly ever spoke two words to Inuyasha, like Ayumi and Eri, couldn't help but respect the guy for what he was willing to do to himself on public television all in the name of clearing an actress' name. He might be a hunter of sorts, stalking celebrities in the hopes of catching them in entertainingly compromising positions, but he was also honor bound to uphold the _truth_, and since their magazine had interviewed Miss Watanabe not really all that long ago about her new upcoming movie, accusing her of being a kitsune in disguise was synonymous with accusing _them _of having _known _she was a kitsune in disguise. In an office full of spiritualists, a taijiya and a hanyou, there was just no _way _they wouldn't have discovered the truth, assuming the actress really were a youkai.

So maybe it wasn't really so much for Hitomi's sake as it was for their own that he was willing to go to such extremes, but it still showed his loyalty to the magazine, his dedication to the job. Kagome smiled to herself just thinking about it. She couldn't ignore the giant burst of protective energy that was coming off of Inuyasha in waves as he buzzed around the office even if she tried to. Whether he was truly trying to protect themselves, Hitomi, or perhaps a bit of both, she couldn't be sure, but he was definitely in _protector _mode, and that was one more thing Kagome added to her small but growing mental list of things she knew about Inuyasha. He was a fierce and loyal protector of what he deemed important.

_Makes sense, considering he __is__ half inu-youkai_.

Kagome easily remembered from her childhood lessons on youkai that inu were almost viciously loyal when it came to protecting what was theirs. They would willingly die defending a loved one, though ideally it would be their enemy that was slain. But in a true life or death battle they would keep fighting until their enemy either died or gave up, or killed them, never surrendering so long as breath remained in their body. Some people thought that made them monsters, but how did defending the ones you loved from an attacking monster make _you _the monster? Kagome had never irrationally feared all youkai growing up. Her mother and grandfather had taught her well, teaching her the differences between the species, teaching her which youkai you actually _should _fear and which ones you did _not _need to fear. Inu were in the latter category. The inu-youkai of the mountains, or yamainu as they were usually called, posed no threat to human hikers, usually keeping to themselves though sometimes it even made it into the news that an inu-youkai helped a lost human hiker find their way back to camp. Obviously inu-youkai weren't all that bad, otherwise how would Inuyasha even be here? Though she didn't know the details surrounding how his parents had gotten together, one thing was beyond obvious, which was that a union between a human and an inu-youkai had taken place approximately thirty years ago. As far as Kagome was concerned, hanyou were proof that true love knew no boundaries.

_Now if I could just get my heart to go along with the notion that true love requires things like actually going out on dates and __learning__ stuff about each other_… she thought with an exasperated sigh. So maybe she couldn't rightfully say she was in love with the guy, but it was definitely more than just a physical attraction by that point. She _liked _him, now if only she could be certain he _knew _she liked him, and if not, to inform him of such.

As the hanyou of her thoughts breezed by on his way to Miroku's office Kagome was suddenly hit with a powerful wave of energy, followed by an unexpected image that flashed through her mind's eye, temporarily blinding her to what her real eyes were seeing until the vision began to fade. One of her abilities when it came to sensing a person's soul was like on a semi-conscious level she could _see _the purist essence of who they really were, like a picture painting a thousand words, but she'd never been caught off guard by one of her visions before. Usually she had to concentrate in an effort to conjure up the images. This time it was almost as if Inuyasha had thrown it at her, though Kagome quickly decided it was much more likely that he'd inadvertently hit her with his youketsu as he passed, since his aura was so much more powerful than normal right now, all charged up with his youki presently in full take-action mode.

He must have felt the impact as their auras collided as well because he immediately skidded to a halt, turning around just in time to catch sight of the way Kagome wobbled a bit, holding out a hand to steady herself against her desk before shaking her disorientation free.

"Are you okay?" he asked her with nothing but genuine concern in his voice, and looking up at the sound she smiled at him, the warmest smile he'd ever seen her give. Gone was the irrational fluttering of her heart, the shallow breaths that indicated she was nervous in his presence.

"I'm fine." she replied after a moment, her heart rate gradually increasing in tempo the longer he gazed at her with those breathtakingly beautiful, golden eyes.

He could sense it as her nervousness slowly began to rise, but for the first time since meeting the girl Inuyasha silently questioned whether or not her nervousness was because she was _afraid _of him. That smile she'd given him, it had his own heartbeat pounding a little bit faster than usual, too, even more so than it had been a moment prior as he'd zipped down towards Miroku's office. Ah, Miroku! He had to tell him what the game plan was for tonight's set up. But he couldn't just turn around and walk away from Kagome without another word…that would be rude.

"I would say watch it, but it was really my fault, so…sorry." That said, he quickly whirled away and headed for Miroku's office before he could make a bigger ass of himself.

_What WAS that feeling, when my youki touched her reiki? _It had felt like a nonhostile invasion, as if there really was such a thing. But he'd gotten the distinct impression that she'd actually been thinking about him at the time of impact, which he supposed made sense since probably 99% of the office was thinking about him at the moment, considering what he was going to do on the news tonight. Quickly shaking the weird feeling off, he entered Miroku's office and started breaking down their schedule.

Kagome, meanwhile, was suddenly inspired with a new wave of determination. She couldn't just keep on going the way things had been without changing _something _of her routine, that _would _be crazy. Now, though, she had the perfect plan. It would take a while to come to fruition, but she _would _tear down the wall between them, and she knew exactly how to do it.


	2. It's beginning to look a lot like Xmas

Blanket Disclaimer:

Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.

* * *

><p>.<p>

.

Chapter 2 – It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

.

.

The rest of the summer seemed to breeze by.

Inuyasha had passed his television debut with flying colors, namely yellow and orange sparks when he tried to peal Miroku's ofuda off of Hitomi's arm. After a few tries he even successfully pulled it off, the strip of paper immediately catching on fire in his hand, forcing him to drop it. There was _no_ doubt in the public's eye; Hitomi Watanabe was 100% human. In a show of gratitude the award winning actress had given both Inuyasha and Miroku VIP passes to the premier screening of her new upcoming movie, which Inuyasha graciously (for him) declined attending, giving his ticket to Sango so that she and the pervert could go together.

There was very little ripple effect in his own life from appearing on the news; all of Inuyasha's fellow paparazzi had already met the hanyou at one point in time or another as they'd stake out the same bigger events, so there was nobody willing to hound him for his 'unveiled' appearance now that he'd had his very own fifteen minutes of fame. Nobody dared say or do anything to piss him off. As for the magazine that had originally accused Miss Watanabe of being a kitsune, they stuck by their original photograph, insisting that even though the actress _was_ human, that there was obviously at least one kitsune on the loose impersonating actors. Inuyasha had merely rolled his eyes as some people began suggesting there should be an increase in security at Hollywood events. Just so long as nobody tried putting up a barrier that would keep _him_ out then they could do whatever they wanted.

The story fizzled out quickly enough, newer and juicier celebrity gossip was always great for inducing ADD in the general population, and the remaining summer months floated by with the usual bikini shots, baby-bump scandals, and on-the-set rumors for whatever may or may not have happened behind the scenes during production of all the newly released summer blockbusters.

_In other words…bor-ing…_ Inuyasha sighed from his hiding place up in a tree, camera in hand. The leaves would be falling soon, and then he'd lose one of his best vantage points for the season. _Oh well, might as well make the most of it,_ he thought, as the front door opened and his target emerged to collect her mail, sans makeup.

"Oh honey…maybe _she's_ born with it, but you definitely need the Maybelline." he joked to himself, clicking away.

oooOoooOoooOooo

"Hold the elevator!"

Fighting back a wave of giggles at the sight before her, Kagome pushed the 'doors open' button to keep the elevator from shutting in the face of the…

_Is she supposed to be a faerie?_

…that was racing towards her position as fast as her silver-glitter stilettos would carry her.

"Thanks…" Rin panted with a hand braced against the elevator's far wall as she made it inside, her coworker hitting the '10' button to begin their accent.

"What _are_ you wearing?" Kagome asked with a huge grin.

"What?" Rin defended with an innocent blink. "Sango and Miroku _both_ said that costumes were okay."

"Oh yeah…yeah Halloween costumes are definitely okay." Kagome agreed, gesturing briefly to her own ensemble, that of a female pirate.

And here she'd been a little worried that _her_ outfit was over the top. Rin was sporting a white miniskirt and sleeveless silver bodice, the aforementioned _glittery_ silver stiletto heels, white and silver yarn twists in her hair, and a small-enough-so-they-won't-get-in-the-way-but-still-large-enough-to-be-noticed pair of white and silver pixie wings attached to the back of her top.

"Cute…" Kagome complemented after she finished eyeing Rin up and down. "Are you _trying_ to make Miroku make a pass at you?" she asked with a laugh, earning a chuckle from the teenager.

After her summer internship was over Rin had eagerly jumped at the chance to continue on with an official position at the magazine as Sango's personal assistant, Miroku having told her the job was hers if she wanted it after such an exemplary performance so far. The seventeen-year-old _loved_ working for Shikon Weekly, and she had been right, it hadn't taken her all that long to get inside the inner gossip circles. Befriending Kagome and Sango had been the best decision of her life.

"Do you suppose Inuyasha dressed up today?"

"Honestly, I doubt he'll be in at all, even though it's Monday." Kagome replied, another thing she'd learned about the hanyou by that point being that he did _not_ like Halloween. "If he did come in today, then no, I don't think he'll be dressed up."

The miko still remembered the faux pas she'd apparently made by asking the hanyou himself what he would be dressing up as three years ago, when they'd been approaching the first Halloween after she'd met him. Of course, since Halloween had been on a Friday that year she'd already known that he wouldn't be in the office, the hanyou typically only coming in on Mondays and Tuesdays unless Miroku called him in for something, but being the friendly, conversational girl that she was she'd asked him in passing what he was planning on dressing up as for Halloween simply as a means of breaking the ice. _Surely_ he'd be going out, with his camera of course, Halloween night being a _huge_ night for celebrity scandals, but just because he'd be working didn't mean he couldn't also enjoy himself at the same time.

Or so she'd thought.

She quite vividly recalled the way he'd _glared_ at her, before asking none too politely _"What the hell should I dress up as? A human?"_

That was the only time one of his angry retorts had actually made her cower in fear a little bit; apparently Halloween was a bit of a sore spot. Warning Rin in that moment so that the girl could avoid the risk of incurring Inuyasha's wrath herself should he be in, Rin thanked Kagome for the heads up right before the elevator dinged and the doors opened to reveal Kikyou – dressed in traditional miko garb.

"Cute." Kagome greeted with a nod of her head and smirk to show the receptionist that her irony was acknowledged and appreciated.

"I thought so." Kikyou replied with a slick smile as Kagome and Rin headed past. "Love the wings!" she called after them to Rin.

"Thanks!" Rin called back.

"He_ is_ here…" Kagome murmured to herself in mild surprise, immediately picking up on the feel of Inuyasha's youki. She'd always been able to sense demonic auras, of course, but after working for so long in such close proximity to the guy she'd actually learned how to recognize his specific youki signature. Although he was the only one in the building of demonic blood, which made identifying him much easier, if she hypothetically ever found herself surrounded by a large group of youkai, which she doubted she would, she would easily be able to pick out Inuyasha's aura from the crowd.

"Well I'll be…" the miko chimed back up, the girl almost in awe of the sight before her. Inuyasha was wearing jeans…he _always_ wore dress slacks…and a t-shirt that said, "This is my costume."

_It's not much, but it's a hell of a lot more than I was expecting._

Maybe Kagome wasn't the only one trying to change up their routine.

"Ahoy matey!" she bellowed joyfully as she passed, and her ears might've been human, but she could've _sworn_ she heard the sound of Inuyasha quietly chuckling to himself before she turned the corner.

Watching her go, Inuyasha shook his head before getting back to work. Kagome had been…different…for the last few months, but not in a bad way. She hadn't asked him out to lunch recently, but then again the last couple of times she had she'd specifically said for him to let _her_ know whenever he wanted to have lunch together, so maybe she was just respecting his space, knowing that he knew her invitation still stood whenever he was ready and willing to take her up on it. Other than that, though, she'd also seemed more…genuine…with her simple hellos and goodbyes as of late, not quite so nervous around him as she used to be, although it was definitely still there just under the surface. He'd come to discover that if they did happen to speak for whatever reason, that her heart rate would rapidly start increasing the longer he looked at her, but begrudgingly he would admit at least to himself that that didn't necessarily mean she was _afraid_ of him. Confused, uncertain, and almost desperate for answers he'd even gone so far as trying to ask Miroku about it, sure the monk would have insider information, but the houshi hadn't really been all that helpful when he'd evasively answered with something along the lines of Sango gelding him if he dared say anything. But even that non-answer had been mildly helpful, because it meant that Kagome had indeed discussed _something_ with Sango, something Sango had obviously spilled to Miroku though Kagome had probably sworn her to secrecy, and Miroku was in turn keeping his own vow of silence for fear of castration.

_Just what are you hiding, Kagome?_

**_"I'm your biggest fan; I'll follow you until you love me. Papa-paparazzi."_**

Pulled out of his musings, Inuyasha jerked his head towards the sound of Rin's cell, the faerie girl sending him a nervous chuckle before hitting mute and tucking the phone back in her skirt pocket. Both surprising and relieving the teenager, he chuckled a bit himself, shaking his head in amusement, a twinkle in his golden eyes.

"Cute, now get to work before Miroku sees you and drools all over you."

"Yes, sir." she answered with a laugh, scurrying away towards Sango's office the best she could in those shoes.

With his own phone going off with a charm to let him know he had a new incoming e-mail, Inuyasha officially put the crazy teenager out of his head as a devilish smirk slowly exposed his fangs, once he saw just who it was. Last week, still desperate for answers but at the same time still being far too chicken-shit to risk humiliating himself should he be wrong, Inuyasha had come up with an ingenious plan to ask Kagome how she felt without just coming out and asking her how she felt. He had created a brand new free e-mail account that was completely generic and sent Kagome an anonymous e-mail through their blog site asking for advice. She'd just written back.

_"Dear Kagome,_

_There's a woman I work with who I'd thought for sure couldn't stand me, a logical assumption since it's the reaction I've gotten most of my life because of my…scars…but now I think I might be wrong. Sure she was always nice enough, on the surface, but underneath I always got the feeling she couldn't wait to get away from me, like just looking at me made her skin crawl. I'd thought for sure she was just acting nice on the surface to be, well, nice, but that that was where it ended. Now I'm not so sure. The problem is nobody's ever liked me before so I don't know how to recognize the signs, I think I might have been misinterpreting her 'nervous' body language but I don't want to just come out and ask her and risk being wrong. But I doubt she'll ever be brave enough to be more open with her feelings toward me because…well…back when I thought she was just acting nice to be professional I was a bit defensive and boorish with her. Let's just say I'm used to people not really liking me all that much, and to be honest I'm still not 100% sure how this woman really feels. If I was right in the first place and she was just trying to be polite then I'll look like I total douche. Any advice you could give for subtly letting her know I'm not adverse to the idea of getting to know her better without the risk of it blowing up in my face if she doesn't feel that way about me would be greatly appreciated._

_- Confused & Apprehensive"_

And her reply…

_"Dear Confused & Apprehensive,_

_Wow, I don't think I've come across a situation quite like yours before. First allow me to apologize on behalf of all of the cruel people in this world who've treated you differently simply based on your appearance. I realize I don't know what you look like, but there's a big difference between being initially startled by a person's unexpected appearance and actually being cruel to them because of it. If you thought at first that this woman also had a problem with you because of your looks but now you're not so sure, then perhaps she was genuinely surprised at first, which isn't the same as repulsed, and now she likes you since she's gotten to know you as a person and your features are no longer shocking. Of course, I can't guarantee that's the case; I'm not there witnessing how she acts so all I can offer is advice based on how I think I would feel. I know for me, personally, no matter how shocking somebody might look on the outside I would never allow that to prevent me from truly getting to know that person on the inside. As for your question of if there is anything subtle you can do to feel out the situation with this woman without the risk of humiliation should you be seeing something that isn't there, the best advice I can give in that regard would be to just be yourself, let your defenses drop a little. Lowering your wall isn't the same thing as asking her out on a date, and it won't open you up to too much risk if she's being polite enough on the surface. If she has no desire to be let in in the first place then opening the door doesn't hurt anything in the long run. You said you were defensive and boorish in the beginning, back before you'd thought she might like you, so I'm assuming by that statement that you've already stopped acting so cruel, which is definitely a good thing. Now it's time to take it to the next step. You don't have to go out of your way to seek her out, at least not at first, but the next time you're speaking with her, when you start to feel what you feel when you think she might be nervous around you because of a crush rather than because of your scars, do something simple like a smile, an extra kind word, say her named added to 'thank you' instead of just 'thanks' the next time that opportunity arises. You'd be amazed how quickly women notice little things like that, and if she's not interested she'll probably start to shy away from you herself, perhaps afraid that feelings are developing on your end, but she certainly won't call you on it with no proof. If you ask her out then there's the risk of her saying no and the ensuing humiliation, I get that, so start small, give her baby steps that at least show her you're not blind to her feelings. If she does like you, then instead of shying away she'll be encouraged, and then who knows, it just might be her asking you out on a date. Give it a shot. I'm here for you if you need any more help._

_-Kagome"_

"Wow…just wow." Inuyasha mumbled to himself. Of course, he'd had to keep it vague for fear of Kagome recognizing the similarities, so he hadn't felt comfortable bringing up the fact that the woman actually _had_ already asked him out to lunch a few times in the past. Still, though, Kagome's advice was good. Damn good. He certainly wouldn't approach _her_, because that would be entirely out of character for him and she'd immediately know something was up, but he would be nicer to her from here on out. He _had_ thought that 'being nice' equated to _not_ being mean, but just biting his tongue to keep from saying something rude certainly wasn't the same thing as smiling at her or saying her name.

_So chicks notice that kind of stuff, huh?_

He was still half-tempted to surprise her by accepting her open invitation to lunch, just to see her face, but it wasn't worth the possible backlash if word spread throughout the office that _he_ liked _Kagome_, at least not if she didn't feel the same way.

oooOoooOoooOooo

"Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening. A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight-"

"Walkin' 'round in women's underwear!" Miroku chimed in, causing Sango to sigh in exasperation before chuckling a bit despite herself.

"Must you sing Christmas parodies?"

"Must _you_ sing traditional Christmas carols?"

The slayer raised one elegant eyebrow, but Miroku's poker face never wavered. "Touché" she finally relented, and he smirked in triumph.

"I can't wait till the Christmas party!" Kagome chimed in from the doorway, entering Sango's office behind Miroku.

"Indeed, I hear you are particularly looking forward to this year's Secret Santa." Miroku replied with a slight edge of curiosity in his voice, his girlfriend having offered him no details.

"Oh, you have no idea." Kagome responded cryptically, sending Sango a playful wink that had the slayer giggling before handing Kagome a small wicker basket.

The miko then proceeded to reach into her pocket and pull out a handful of tiny folded pieces of paper, tossing them into the basket. The name draw…but there weren't nearly enough papers to represent everybody on the entire floor.

Miroku's silent raised eyebrow was enough for Kagome to answer with "You'll see." before heading back out of the office.

Following a little ways behind the miko, Miroku observed in silence as she approached Inuyasha's desk.

"Pick a name!" she spoke up happily, causing both Miroku _and_ Inuyasha to raise an eyebrow at her.

"I don't participate in the Secret Santa." the hanyou informed her with a polite enough tone of voice.

"Well _that's_ about to change, now that Sango put _me_ in charge of this year's Christmas party. Your name was included, and that means that _you_ need to draw a name. Come on, it'll be fun!"

Sighing, Inuyasha wanted to say no; he wanted to explain to Kagome that he _never_ attended the Christmas party, and therefore whomever he drew for the Secret Santa would get gypped because he wouldn't be getting them a present. But just the thought that she had included him… Looking up into her smiling blue-gray eyes, not even the remotest hint of nervousness presently clouding her scent, he was immediately accosted with just how lovely she truly was, and suddenly, he just didn't have the heart to say no. He _was_ still trying to do that whole 'be nicer' thing, after all, in the hopes that she might one day make it obvious whether or not she felt _that_ way about him. Her bubbly coming up to him and informing him that she had included him in the Secret Santa had to count for something, right? What better way to be nice, then, than to give in when she oh-so-obviously wanted him to comply?

_Maybe attending this year's Christmas party will be fun…it'll certainly be worth it to see Kagome smile…_

Plus seeing the surprised faces of everyone else might make it worth it, too, since most of the old timers in the office thought of him more or less as the resident scrooge during the holiday season.

"Fine, whatever." he finally caved then, his tone of voice a slight bit softer than his words, though not by much. He still had to keep it at least a _little_ bit in character, after all.

Reaching into the basket, he took the first piece of paper within reach, silently hoping he'd actually plucked his own name. That would be win/win because then not only would he not have to worry about buying some tchotchke Hallmark crap for somebody he hardly knew, but at the same time nobody else would be put in the awful position of having to buy _him_ some tchotchke Hallmark crap.

"Thanks…Kagome." he murmured almost under his breath, but loud enough for the girl to hear.

Beaming at Inuyasha with an award winning smile, her heart now fluttering quite loudly, Kagome quickly turned and veered around the office floor, backtracking to Sango's personal office without Inuyasha noticing her destination. Miroku was hot on her heels, however, and he quickly followed Kagome back inside his girlfriend's office, closing the door behind him before whispering a quick chant and slapping his hand against the door, effectively creating a soundproof barrier.

Kagome gazed Miroku's way with a raised eyebrow and knowing smirk.

"Something you don't want to risk demonic ears overhearing?" she asked almost conversationally.

"Just what are you up to, Kagome?" Miroku asked with a half accusative, half amused tone of voice. "You know Inuyasha doesn't attend the annual Christmas party."

She merely shrugged. "He will this year."

"And how can you be so sure?" Miroku countered. "You know that even if he _does_ come, he probably won't buy a gift for whoever he drew out of the basket."

At that Kagome waved her hand dismissingly before heading over to Sango's confetti-cut shredder and quickly grabbing the rest of the name slips from the basket to shred, the slayer saying nothing with an amused grin as she gazed across her desk at Miroku with knowing eyes.

It only took the monk 1.5 seconds to catch on.

"You rigged the Secret Santa!" he gasped in astonishment, not so much angered by that fact as he was amused, not having thought 'sweet, innocent Kagome' would have had it in her to do something so devious.

Once again, the miko waved her hand dismissingly, not panicked by his outburst since he'd put up a barrier, which she actually appreciated. She didn't want her plans spoiled, after all. Taking the empty basket and refilling it with the_ real_ name slips Sango had ready to go in her desk drawer, she then raised her eyes and met Miroku's knowing smirk head on.

"Only between Inuyasha and myself." she explained as means of defense. "I don't mind that he won't get me anything, but I just _had_ to make sure I was able to give him _my_ present."

"Is it going to be another one of your sketches?" Miroku asked with genuine curiosity, familiar with Kagome's gift.

"Yes and no." the miko answered cryptically.

For the last three Christmases Kagome had made for whomever she picked as her Secret Santa an 8x10 portrait of themselves, but they had not been normal sketches. Done with color pencil, the incredibly life-like images had been almost fanciful in style, captured glimpses of the person's innermost soul. Last year she had picked Eri, for example, and she had drawn the fashionista in the most glamorous of gowns in a ballroom scene like something out of the 17th century.

In three short years her sketches had become quite the talk of the office once Christmas time came rolling around, everyone dying to know whom she'd pick and what she'd draw. The Secret Santa was supposed to be a surprise, but Kagome – usually – needed to meditate with the person in order to conjure up those images. She'd tricked the first person by telling them she was giving everyone a spiritual reading, something she liked to do for her friends around the holidays, but by the second year her Secret Santa hadn't been fooled, the cat having been out of the bag after the first sketch had been revealed and the recipient had realized that no one else had received such a 'reading'. Last year Eri had squealed in delight when Kagome had flat out told her she'd 'won', getting her few minutes with the girl the same day as the name draw so that she'd have as much time as possible to work on the sketch. What the drawings were going to look like was always still kept a secret because even though Kagome received the images right then and there she always refused to say what they were of, sealing her lips with the old-fashioned 'zipper' sign language while playfully telling her subject they'd just have to wait and see.

This year the surprise would be even grander, because not only had she already had the image she wanted to draw buzzing around in her head since last summer, but having had that much more time to work on it meant she could go bigger and bolder. Inuyasha's portrait was 16x20, and she had used oil paints instead of colored pencils. It was already finished, dry, wrapped and ready to be presented, hence her dire need for rigging this year's Secret Santa exchange. She couldn't just give it to him for _no reason_, although it'd probably be obvious to everyone present once he opened it that it had taken her more than two weeks to make. So let the entire office know she had a thing for Inuyasha, she was tired of hiding it. This was her 'coming out' party, so to speak, and if anything, if it blew up in her face because he didn't see her that way, then surely he would still appreciate the gift as something from a friend. She could explain to him _her_ gift, how she could receive such visions and how she had always done drawings like that for all of her friends and family since she had been a little girl, and how after receiving that vision from their inadvertent aura collision she'd just felt compelled to draw it. One thing was for sure, and that was that no matter _what_ the outcome was from this fiasco, he would certainly be unable to believe she thought of him as nothing but a charity case. She still wasn't certain if that was how he saw her to begin with, though he'd certainly been acting a lot nicer to her in the last few months. Maybe he had thought that, at first, but no longer did. Now if only he'd take her up on one of her many previous invitations out to lunch.

_One thing at a time, Kagome…_

The expression 'go big or go home' came to mind; at least no one could call her a coward.

Lowering his barrier, Miroku gave Kagome one last smirk before heading back towards his own office, but not before plucking a name from the Secret Santa basket. Leaving the miko to her task, then, he silently prayed that Inuyasha would indeed show up to the Christmas party. He had more or less conceded when he'd accepted that piece of paper from Kagome, albeit begrudgingly, but the inu-hanyou was nothing if not a man of his word. 'Fine, whatever' might be blaringly unenthusiastic, but it wasn't a _no_.

oooOooo

As the hanyou noticed Kagome continuing to buzz around their floor, going from desk to desk handing out the name slips, he couldn't help the troubling sigh that escaped his lips as he glanced one more time down at the name he held in his name.

_Why did it have to be her?_ he questioned uselessly, knowing the answer. The gods were fucking with him, _that's_ why.

For the briefest of moments Inuyasha had wanted to believe that Kagome had done it on purpose, but what could she possibly hope to gain if that were true? Well now, only way to find that out was to go to the party, wasn't it? But what the hell to get her as a gift? What did women even like? Teddy bears? Regrettably, Inuyasha had to admit, at least to himself, that he really didn't know all that much about Kagome. He couldn't even make an educated guess based on the things she had received in previous years since he'd never before attended the stupid party. Stalking her from the shadows to observe her routine probably wouldn't work, either, because he could feel for himself how powerful her miko aura was, which meant he was nearly positive that if he got close enough to see what kind of stuff she liked in the stores that he would also be within her youki sensing range. That wouldn't do. The _last_ thing he wanted to do was inadvertently let Kagome feel him following her; heaven forbid the girl actually thought he was stalking her for reasons other than Christmas shopping reconnaissance. If his mother was still alive he would have called her in a heartbeat, but unfortunately the human woman had passed away from heart disease back when he was in high school. He'd always tried so hard not to stress her out, to keep his pain to himself so as not to add to her distress, though he was sure she could see his pain in his eyes. She would have loved to see how successful he'd become since then; she would have loved Kagome.

_Whoa, getting way too ahead of myself with those kinds of thoughts…_ the hanyou told himself, snapping himself out of his spiraling daydream.

So what to do? He certainly wasn't calling his evil bitch of an aunt; she could burn in hell for all he cared. But he also didn't want to ask any of the office girls, not even Rin or Sango – check that, _especially_ not Rin or Sango – because just on the off chance that Kagome hadn't rigged the name draw then the last thing he wanted to do was risk giving the girl a heads up that he'd actually drawn her name. He was pretty sure that just about any girl he talked to in the office, especially those two, would rat him out to the miko for sure if he tried asking questions regarding what kind of stuff Kagome liked. He would just have to wing it, then. It was the thought that counted, or so they said, whoever 'they' were.

_She damn well better appreciate the fact that I'm even going to the stupid party…_

oooOoooOoooOooo

"Merry Christmas!" Miroku greeted with an exaggerated welcoming sweep of his arms, causing Rin to giggle before leaning in to chastely peck his cheek.

"Works every time." the houshi stated playfully to the miko by his side while pointing up to the piece of mistletoe hanging from a bent wire perched atop his hat, Kagome rolling her eyes before heading back over to Sango at the punch bowl. She would let the slayer handle it if her boyfriend got out of hand, though so far Miroku was behaving himself, for Miroku.

"And he wonders why I haven't agreed to marry him yet." the slayer grumbled to her friend once Kagome was back by her side, although it was obvious there wasn't any true bite behind her words.

"Oh come on, you know you're just saving it for tomorrow night." Kagome joked, causing Sango to playfully put her finger to her lips and shush the miko as if she had nearly spilled a national secret.

Giggling, Sango then reached for the ladle in the punch bowl to pour herself another cup of punch.

Gesturing towards the giant bowl of fruit flavored sugar water, Kagome crinkled her nose and asked, "How much booze is in there, anyway?"

"Not nearly enough." Sango answered before laughing again and then taking a drink.

Laughing as well, Kagome poured her own second glass, and was just about to take a sip when a small gasp escaped her instead.

"What is it?" Sango asked in concern.

"My spider senses are tingling." Kagome replied with a crooked grin.

"You don't say…"

"I _do_ say, and I _see_…" the miko stated playfully, gesturing towards the elevator past the empty reception desk and the silver-haired man who was, rather apprehensively in her opinion, joining the party.

"Inuyasha!" Miroku bellowed joyously from his place as self-appointed host. "Welcome!"

Nearly everyone in the office turned to gape at the hanyou at their boss' words, and Kagome's heart immediately went out to the guy, his expression not unlike the male subject of the classic 'went to school in your underwear' dream, even though he was fully dressed in dark brown slacks and a red sweater. Quickly rushing over to his rescue, punch still in hand, she cut a few people off at the pass as she reached him before anyone else could, holding up her beverage as a peace offering.

"You look like you could use this more than me." she stated quickly as way of greeting.

To her complete astonishment, he actually took the punch from her hand, and after giving it a quick yet noticeable sniff he mumbled a quiet "Thanks." before downing the artificially colored liquid in a single gulp.

"It'll be okay, just breathe." she added after a moment, her voice amused though it was clear she wasn't actually laughing at him, not that she was really laughing _with_ him since he wasn't laughing, but Inuyasha could easily smell the faint traces of alcohol coming from the girl's breath and accurately deduced that she was feeling marginally less inhibited than usual.

"I don't know how you managed to talk me into this." he grumbled honestly.

The place was a madhouse, their entire office floor decked out head to toe with cheesy Christmas decorations, streamers and lights. Folding tables from the employee lounge had been brought in and lined the walls with an assortment of chips, party trail mixes, cookies and brownies, cans of soda, not to mention the infamous 'punch' bowl. Christmas music was playing on somebody's stereo rather loudly, and over half the people in attendance were already at least partially intoxicated if not completely drunk off their asses. It wasn't really as if Inuyasha had arrived that late, but drinking was simply the first thing that most people did when they got there, and therefore it didn't take too long for the 'punch' to kick in – especially when it was repeatedly being spiked by multiple employees after having already been alcoholic to begin with.

_Just what I need, to be surrounded by all the people I work with while they're at their loudest and smelliest…_

The next words out of Kagome's mouth quickly pulled Inuyasha from his spiraling scrooge-y-ness.

"Well…I'm really glad you decided to come."

Blinking at the miko in surprise, he finally took in her appearance, and nearly chocked on the lump in his throat. She usually wore skirts to work, but they were longer, business appropriate. The tiny pleated thing she presently had on barely covered anything, and absentmindedly he thought to congratulate her on still being able to fit into her old high school uniform; that was what the skirt looked like at least. Her sweater top was short-sleeved and fuzzy white, a nice contrast against the dark green skirt and her raven black hair. He had to quit staring before she realized what such an innocent – yet at the same time wholly _not_ innocent – outfit did to him.

Averting his eyes, he numbly handed her the small, Christmas wrapped box he held in his hand, before stuttering through an embarrassed, "Uh- I…that is…"

"Oh, Secret Santa gifts go over there." Kagome pointed, trying her best to act as if she didn't know the gift was for her, all the while inwardly screaming in giddiness over the fact that he'd actually gotten her something. She didn't care _what_ was in the box; Inuyasha had bought her something for the gift exchange! She suddenly felt more like a schoolgirl with a crush than she had the first day she'd met him, and abruptly excused herself to go get herself that much needed second drink, promising she'd be back in a few minutes.

Gradually loosening up a bit as most people at the party got back to whatever it was they had been doing before they were startled by his unexpected arrival, Inuyasha made his way over towards his desk, which was remarkably free of party clutter. It was nice to know that everyone respected his space even when he wasn't there.

"Uh-uh-uh…" Miroku chimed in coming up on the hanyou from behind. "No work allowed. Tonight is all about fun!"

"I don't really 'do' fun." Inuyasha mumbled, though he relented and turned away from his desk, eyeing Miroku up and down. Despite himself a small chuckle escaped his lips at the sight. The houshi was dressed in khakis topped by a green and white Christmas sweater, not to mention the handmade 'kiss me' cap on his head.

"You _do_ know that mistletoe is poisonous, right?"

"Was I going to eat it?" Miroku retorted.

"Knowing you, you just might, if you thought it'd make a girl stick her tongue down your throat in pursuit."

Chuckling, Miroku shook his head in delighted amusement before removing the cap from his head and sitting it on the hanyou's desk, which was simply the nearest surface they were standing next to at the moment. Inuyasha glared at the hat for a second but quickly decided to let it go as Miroku spoke back up.

"Ah, but you know well that when it comes to such levels of intimacy there is only _one_ girl with whom I would willingly participate, and for her I don't need such parlor tricks."

"No, actually, she's waiting for you to _stop_ your parlor tricks altogether." came Kagome's voice from behind, and Inuyasha hid his smirk as Miroku's face adopted the expression of a scolded ten-year-old boy.

"I'm so misunderstood." Miroku mumbled to himself with a pout, earning a chuckle from the hanyou.

Kagome smiled at Inuyasha as Miroku walked away, the sound of his mild laughter music to her ears.

"Okay, so I'm here." he stated to the girl as if waiting for something to happen. "Now what?"

"Now…we relax and have a good time hanging out." she explained as though it were obvious, but with a playful wink in lieu of genuine sarcasm.

"Ugh."

"Oh good, I was afraid that one would have earned me a 'feh'…'ugh' is higher up on the acceptance scale."

Inuyasha barked out a genuine laugh at that one, mostly because it was _true_. "And 'keh'?" he asked her then, a spark of teasing in his golden eyes.

Kagome blushed a little – or was she just flushed from the alcohol? – but quickly answered him, merriment sparkling in her own blue-gray orbs.

"'Keh' is the most versatile noncommittal one can articulate, the monosyllabic utterance simultaneously synonymous with both the proverbial slang 'whatever' as well as the more sincere acknowledgment of truly accepting whatever details may surround any given situation. It suggestions compliance without expressly verbalizing agreement."

Playfully whistling in astonishment, Inuyasha smirked at the miko and said, "If I weren't also a writer, I'd think you were trying to show off or something."

"Who said I wasn't trying to show off?" Kagome countered, clearly a little buzzed though she wasn't _that_ drunk.

Inuyasha was at a loss for words at that response, so flashing her a crooked grin that showed off one of his fangs, he met her eyes and answered, "Keh."

Kagome nearly toppled over in laughter, earning them a few curious glances from some of the other partygoers, though before he could worry about getting himself in any deeper Sango suddenly rushed in to the rescue.

"You might want to steer clear of the Long Island Hawaiian Punch." Sango warned the hanyou. "I think four different people with flasks overheard me saying the punch wasn't spiked enough."

"Only four?" Inuyasha inquired with a raised eyebrow.

Sango snorted.

"Hey!" Kagome protested. "I'm not drunk!"

Rolling her eyes, Sango stated, "And I'd like to _keep_ it that way, so let's both switch to soda for an hour or two."

Kagome was still level headed enough to know that she _definitely_ didn't want to risk ruining what was to come, so she readily agreed, unable to believe she'd just been joking around with Inuyasha though she didn't regret a second of it or feel embarrassed.

Left to his own devices it didn't take too long for Inuyasha to officially feel bored and out of place, but he had been right, seeing her smile had been worth it. He knew he was stuck, now, because he couldn't leave at least until after the gift exchange was over. While he supposed he _could_ ditch out early, since surely whoever had drawn his name hadn't gotten him anything – they probably hadn't thought he'd show up since he never did and so he didn't really blame them – he couldn't leave early because a part of him desperately wanted to see Kagome's reaction when she opened _her_ present. It wasn't much, but he'd like to think he'd done at least a little bit better than the cliché teddy bear. It had still come out of a knickknack shop, but his mother used to have one and so he hoped it was something that most women liked. A part of him was terrified to see Kagome's reaction, in case he was wrong, but he tried to reason with that irrational fear; he hadn't gotten her anything _romantic_, after all, so why the hell should he fear her reaction to the gift? It was a gift exchange! He'd drawn her name! He was _supposed_ to buy her something, and so hopefully even if she didn't like it she wouldn't say anything hurtful in front of everyone else. While he couldn't really say he knew for sure since he'd never before attended one of these things, surely there was an unwritten rule about always graciously accepting whatever present you were given regardless of your innermost feelings about it. If she didn't like then it she could throw it away once she got home tonight; no hard feelings, although truthfully he hoped she _would_ like it.

Deciding to at least try and get into the spirit of things, at least a little bit, Inuyasha slowly began wandering around their office floor, saying a few casual hellos to the coworkers who were nice enough to say hello to him first, acknowledging their surprise but also delight in seeing him _finally_ attending the annual celebration. A few people even said they hoped he made a habit out of it from here on out; maybe he wasn't as disliked as he'd always thought he was. Maybe everyone always just left him alone because he sent out that 'leave me alone' vibe, which only Kagome ignored. He quirked his lip up in mild amusement at the thought; there was no way Kagome was oblivious to his standoffishness. No, she was deliberately ignoring his 'leave me alone' vibe for sure, now the only question left was _why_. Letting that thought drift out of him as quickly as it'd come, he told himself not to worry about it in that moment, certain he would find out sooner or later. For at least that moment in time, he didn't want to hinder his evening with such thoughts.

Gradually, as he socialized with everyone at the party, a different type of curiosity began setting in. Who _had_ drawn his name? _Had_ that person gotten him something? It wasn't really as if he wanted or needed anything, but slowly but surely the feeling he'd almost forgotten all about, that feeling of being a kid on Christmas morning, was starting to bubble up in his gut. He was starting to have a good time. At the same time, curiosity was buzzing all around him for who _Kagome_ had picked, several people quizzing each other in the hopes of finding out because apparently the miko would tell whomever she'd chosen that she'd picked them in advance so that she could do some sort of…something. He was only able to pick up bits and pieces of the conversations here and there, but apparently Kagome always gave whomever she picked a pencil sketch of themselves. He hadn't even known she could draw, but apparently she was quite the artist because the room was all a buzz about it in little private groups here and there, nobody able to figure out whose name she'd drawn that year.

Before he could start thinking on it too deeply himself, though, Inuyasha's attention was suddenly pulled towards the sound of the miko's voice, as well as joyful laughter and whistling, coming from a large group of people who were all crowded around the boom box on Eri's desk. Kylie Minogue's rendition of 'Santa Baby' was playing, and Kagome was singing over it…rather artistically.

"Santa baby, just slip a sable under the tree, for me. Been an awful good girl, Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight." she sang, dancing around in such a manner that revealed she knew damn well what that short skirt of hers did to all the guys in the office.

Inuyasha would've been struck with a wave of possessive jealousy if it weren't for fact that the miko wasn't his. He felt conflicted, on the one hand he wanted to put a stop to all the other guys ogling her in such a way, but on the other hand he was a warm-blooded male too and so he wanted to watch as well. Shaking his head in amusement after a moment, he at least had to admit that Kagome knew how to entertain a crowd. One sniff of the girl revealed that while she was perhaps a little tipsy, she wasn't anywhere near drunk enough to be acting so foolishly against her better judgment. She wouldn't regret it come morning; she was doing it on purpose.

"She always does this." Sango chimed in in that moment from his side, as if reading his thoughts, the slayer's huge grin communicating that, apparently, he'd been missing out on quite the show by failing to attend previous Christmas parties.

"Santa baby, a '54 convertible too, light blue. I'll wait up for your dear, Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight." Kagome continued singing, her eyes sparkling with merriment as she spotted Inuyasha in the crowd. Slowly, she approached his position.

"Think of all the fun I've missed. Think of all the fellas that I _haven't_ kissed. Next year I could be just as good, if you'll check off my Christmas list." she sang provocatively, causing the hanyou to gulp in nervousness while many of the other guys laughed at his expense. Was this like college hazing 'cause he was the new guy or what? Still, though, he couldn't find it in him to be angry over _that_ kind of teasing.

Continuing to work the crowd, Kagome eventually gave her fair share of attention to all the different guys standing around, although Inuyasha noted with a moderate amount of relief that she never actually touched anybody, like running her finger up and down their chests or anything. That might've pushed his suppressed possessiveness closer to the surface, but just singing and dancing he could handle. Especially when the song got to the part about her wanting a ring, and she eyed Miroku almost accusingly, causing Sango to laugh the loudest while Miroku just looked helpless. As the song came to a close everyone laughed and clapped playfully before getting back to whatever they'd been doing.

"Didn't know you were such a talented performer." he complimented as Kagome came back his way.

Shrugging shyly, Kagome mumbled, "There's a lot we don't know about each other yet."

Opening his mouth, whatever he was going to say got cut off as Miroku chimed in loudly that it was time to open presents, which earned squeals and cheers of joy from the whole office like it was a room full of second-graders.

Obediently allowing himself to be herded in the direction of the present table, Inuyasha smiled a little to himself to note that Kagome had stuck by him, the girl shyly glancing up his way every so often when she thought he wasn't paying attention. There was no mistaking that statement of hers from before Miroku had interrupted the moment. After tonight's party was over, if he didn't chicken out, he'd ask her out to dinner.

As the gift exchange got underway, Inuyasha was content to stand back and watch at first, letting everyone else practically fight over each other to get to the table of presents. Everyone had tagged their gifts 'To' and 'From' so as everyone more or less fended for themselves when it came to finding the gift with their name on it, they gradually began dispersing to thank each other after tracking down who had gotten them what. Spotting an opportunity to reach the table and noticing that Kagome was just standing there nervously biting her bottom lip, he quickly used his hanyou speed to lunge in and out and snatch the gift he'd gotten for her before another round of people got in his way.

"Merry Christmas, Kagome." he murmured shyly, aware of the eyes on him as at least half of the crowd slowed down what they were doing to watch their exchange, though he tried his best to tune them out, nosy bastards.

"Thank you _so_ much." Kagome answered before even tearing into the paper, the look in her eyes expressing the sincerity of her gratitude.

"You haven't even opened it yet." he scolded lightly but with a nervous chuckle, embarrassed that she was making such a big deal out of it.

Immediately opening her present, Kagome's grin only grew wider as she saw what it actually was. A small, wooden 'treasure chest' shaped jewelry/music box. Opening it revealed a velvet-lined place for a few rings and necklaces off to the left, the music box itself to the right. Winding it, she was surprised to find that it played Greensleeves.

"I love this song." she murmured honestly before looking up to meet his eyes with genuine happiness shining in her own. "You don't know what this means to me."

Even more embarrassed, though also secretly pleased, he shrugged in a way he hoped seemed nonchalant, stating, "It's just a stupid trinket. Wasn't that expensive."

_Way to go dumbass…_ he immediately chastised himself, though Kagome seemed unfazed at his attempt to belittle the meaning behind his present.

"Oh, and here I'd thought there was a deep hidden meaning behind it because the first time we'd met I was wearing green, and this song is about unrequited love." she teased as payback, chuckling as his eyes widened in horror, his brain clearly trying to scramble to remember if she had in fact been wearing a green shirt the first day they'd met, which she hadn't been – although she did have a few in her wardrobe.

"Okay…" she spoke back up, effectively cutting off his train of thought before it could completely derail. "Now it's your turn to open _your_ present." she stated authoritatively, her bravado false but efficient nonetheless.

Eyes widening in surprise, Inuyasha gaped like a fish out of water as Kagome reached for the canvas-sized package before handing it over. Quickly regaining his composure, he narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"This isn't a coincidence, is it?" he asked, to which she merely shrugged, blushing again.

Chuckling a bit despite himself he started ripping open the wrapping paper, immediately noticing but also trying to ignore the way just about everyone around them was now giving the pair their full attention, everyone eager to see what Kagome had painted, most of them surprised by its size. The only people visibly at least trying to give them some small measure of privacy were Sango and Miroku, whom Inuyasha quickly realized must have already known of Kagome's plan, though even they glanced their way in curiosity a couple of times, Kagome apparently not having shown even them the painting in advance.

Unveiling the portrait in that moment, the room was filled with more than a few gasps. Somebody also either chose that precise moment to turn off the stereo, or perhaps the Christmas mix CD had merely reached its end, but he did not believe in coincidences and so if it wasn't somebody in the room who'd silenced the music then the gods were fucking with him, again. If life were a movie then the sound effect of a needle scratching across a record would have been added for dramatic effect. You could hear a pin drop, as the saying went, as he stared wordlessly at the painting Kagome had done of himself, unable to speak. It was…fabulous. It was so realistic, it was as if _she_ were the paparazzi, as if it was a photograph instead of an oil painting, but that wasn't the truly amazing part. The image depicted was of him, of course, but what he was wearing and what he was doing…he heard somebody snicker to a friend far in the back of the room, mumbling sarcastically that Kagome sure could capture his 'wild' side, but he let the derogatory dig pass him by unfazed. Kagome _had_ captured his wild side, but that was a _good_ thing as far as he was concerned. The painting was of him dressed in archaic robes from the Feudal era, but in his favorite color, crimson red. His feet were bare, and he sat comfortably perched high up in a tree in what was clearly a relaxed posture, as if simply enjoying gazing out over the countryside, rice fields glistening in the far off background. A battered looking sheathed katana was at his hip, indicating that while he could appreciate peaceful beauty, he wasn't without the scars of a warrior, that sword clearly having seen battle on more than a few occasions. He would protect himself, defend himself, but all he truly wanted was to be left alone, and live in peace. It was as if his very soul was bared before everyone as they gazed on with judgmental faces, blatantly scrutinizing Kagome's work, but he didn't feel naked or exposed. They just didn't get it, and that was their _problem_, not his.

Of course, the real cause of most people's reactions probably had more to do with the fact that she'd made him such a grandiose work of art, rather than the whole 'hanyou' thing, having learned enough from his earlier eavesdropping to know that the previous three years she'd given whomever she'd picked a mere 8x10 colored pencil sketch. So why was she playing such favorites with him? That was it, as far as he was concerned. There was no more uncertainty in his mind regarding her feelings. He only wished now that he hadn't been such a baka over the last three and a half years.

_No time like the present…_

Kagome, meanwhile, was slowly freaking out the longer he gazed wordlessly at his portrait without giving any sort of outward indication of what he was thinking. She could hear the whispering going on around them, too, although her ears weren't sophisticated enough to catch what was being said. But most of the people working there didn't really have any problem with Inuyasha being a hanyou, and so she assumed that most of the whispering was simply of the gossip variety, everyone immediately drawing correct conclusions as to why his painting was clearly more special than anyone else's had ever been. Perhaps a few people were put off by the fact that she apparently felt_ that_ way about him, but screw them. All she cared about in that moment was what _Inuyasha_ thought, and she was nearly certain she would faint in the next twenty seconds if he didn't at least _look_ at her.

As if sensing how distressed she had become, which she quickly realized he undoubtedly could, Inuyasha's eyes snapped up to meet Kagome's gaze in that moment, his golden orbs functioning more as the proverbial windows to the soul in that moment than she'd ever seen them do in the past three and a half years.

"Kagome…" he murmured in awe, and she immediately exhaled in relief, the tone behind the single word already indicating that he didn't hate her painting or feel made fun of because of it. Sensing her relief as well, he quickly assured her of such.

"By the gods, Kagome, this is so…I don't know what to say…" Taking a moment to catch his own breath, he reached over and squeezed her hand for a second before quickly releasing her, asking softly, "How did you…?" He couldn't finish his question, but she knew what he was asking.

"Remember when your youketsu collided with my aura, the day you and Miroku had to deal with that stupid rumor about Hitomi Watanabe?" she asked as way of answering.

"How could I forget…" he muttered, blinking a moment before meeting her eyes once more. Such a collision of energies wouldn't have affected a normal human all that much. They might have just gotten the chills for a second, a flash of heebie-jeebies from coming into such close proximity with a demonic aura, but certainly nothing else ever would have come of it. But because Kagome was a miko, she was special. She also possessed her own personal brand of magic, which was why he'd also felt the collision. A normal human's aura was nowhere near powerful enough for a youkai to 'feel' in that way, but because reiki was an even match for youki in most areas he had felt her just as vividly as she had felt him. He'd never forgotten that sensation, the feel of her invading his very being, but with peaceful intentions.

"And you saw _this?"_ he asked, just to clarify.

Nodding, Kagome explained, "Normally I have to meditate with the person for several minutes to seek out such a vision, but with you…ever since that day I haven't been able to get it out of my head. I _had_ to paint it."

"…Sorry?" he apologized sheepishly, not having meant to burden her with such a thing.

"I'm not."

Blushing a little himself at that, Inuyasha felt only marginally relieved that everyone else had finally decided their personal lives weren't that interesting after all, the crowd of nosey onlookers gradually dispersing. Once they were more or less alone, Inuyasha hesitantly reached for Kagome's hand a second time, giving it another squeeze, only that time he didn't let go right away afterwards.

"Now I feel stupid for just getting you a cheesy music box. So much work and thought went into your gift…"

"Don't worry about it." she assured him honestly, "I think the music box is cute, and besides, I _wanted_ to make you that painting. The most important gift you've given me tonight is just you showing up, so that I could give it to you."

"Still, though, I feel like I owe you _something_." he insisted, the look in his eyes shy and hesitant.

Suddenly, she had a feeling she knew where he was trying to go with that line of thought, and so she quickly decided to help ease the burden of him actually having to ask her.

"Well, if you _really_ want to make it up to me, you can take me out to dinner tomorrow night."

His eyes widened in surprise, not at the invite itself since that had been what he was trying to muscle up the courage for, but the date. It wasn't that tomorrow night was so soon, it was just…

"But…tomorrow night's Christmas Eve."

"And…?"

"Don't you…celebrate Christmas with your family or something?"

"I'm sure Mama would understand." Her eyes widened a little bit. "Unless…unless _you_ have other pl-"

"No." he interrupted. "No other plans." Gulping nervously, Inuyasha gave Kagome's hand another little squeeze, and then meeting her eyes he asked officially for the record, "Would…uh…would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow night?"

She smiled.

"I'd love to."


	3. Getting to know you

Blanket Disclaimer:

Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.

* * *

><p>.<p>

.

Chapter 3 – Getting to know you

.

.

The following evening Kagome was a nervous wreck, but in a good way.

She'd called the shrine early that morning to apologize to her mother that she wouldn't be able to make it over for Christmas dinner, but when Mrs. Higurashi had learned that the reason was because she had a _date_, and with the silver-haired photographer she knew her daughter had been crushing on for over three years now, Kagome had immediately been excused from dinner and told to have a wonderful time. She'd then had her squealing-in-delight girl talk with Sango earlier that afternoon, the slayer super happy for her and demanding details come tomorrow morning, but Sango was now out for the evening herself, staying the night with Miroku, which meant that Kagome was now by herself, staring at herself in the mirror in her fifth outfit of the night, desperately wishing for her mirror to talk back to her though it remained stubbornly silent.

_Like he's really going to care what you wear_… she tried to tell herself. But while it was true that most guys probably didn't care all _that _much about their date's wardrobe, so long as they did look presentable, Inuyasha wrote _tabloid _articles for a living, which included the occasional garment-trashing. She couldn't help but feel under the microscope under such circumstances, even though the 'Best Dressed' and 'Worst Dressed' lists were really Eri's job. Eri! Why hadn't she thought of that sooner?

_Because Yuka, Eri and Ayumi all knew of and discouraged my interest in Inuyasha_…

Still, though, she knew that was only because the trio had locked onto how the hanyou had _used _to act towards her and they refused to acknowledge that he'd changed, still calling him a jerk and such and attempting to assure her that she could do much better. Not a single one of them had ever said anything negative about him being a hanyou, and Kagome was sure they would be supportive of her if a serious relationship did in fact blossom from this date. Office relationships certainly weren't against company policy; if they were then Miroku would be the biggest hypocrite on the planet, and while the perverted holy man might be a lot of things, a hypocrite wasn't one of them. No, Kagome knew that so long as both she and Inuyasha could maintain a professional working relationship around each other while on the clock that there wouldn't be any problem even if they up and got married.

_Getting a little ahead of yourself, girl, don'tcha think? _the miko scolded herself at such wild thoughts, her mirror still unforthcoming with regard to whether the blue dress or red dress would be the better choice for tonight. The blue one matched her eyes, and she felt it better suited her complexion and shape, but the red one was festive, ideal for the holiday season, and red was also Inuyasha's favorite color.

_Somehow, though, I don't think I really need to play on his favorite color to gain his attention_… she thought then with a snicker, shedding the white dress she currently wore. _Blue it is_.

She was just finishing up the final touches on her makeup when a soft knock on the door immediately triggered rapid pounding in her chest. It was time.

oooOooo

Inuyasha stood outside the door to Kagome's apartment mentally trying to fight back a sensation he hadn't felt since his mother died, fear. The only slight consolation he could think of to help him get through his anxiety was the fact that Kagome was clearly just as shaken up as he was, if the thundering heartbeat inside the apartment that was slowly making its way towards the door was any indication. He finally understood. This was a normal fear, a _healthy _fear: a fear of the unknown. He certainly wasn't afraid of _Kagome, _just as Kagome had never actually been afraid of _him_.Why should he fear Kagome? Miko powers notwithstanding the girl posed absolutely no threat to him, and the fact that she _was _a miko he actually liked, believe it or not. It meant they were closer to being equal, although he wasn't delusional enough to honestly believe that a _hanyou _could ever be considered _equal _to anyone.

_Don't go thinking crap like that now, baka_… he scolded himself two seconds before he heard the door unlock, and then there she was, pulling it open to reveal herself standing shyly in the doorway in the most gorgeous midnight blue dress he'd ever seen. The knee-length skirt was loose and flowy, pulled tight at the waist to show off her curves, the bodice accentuating her breasts with just a hint of cleavage before each side climbed up her collarbone to wrap around her neck for support, the back of the dress swooped low and open down to her waist. Her hair was pulled up into a neat bun with only a few loose curls hanging down to dance across her cheeks, leaving her shoulders bare. She looked perfect, fancy but not _too _fancy. They weren't going to an exclusive 'black tie' only restaurant, but the place _had _required reservations – two weeks in advance. Fortunately for Inuyasha, hanyou or no, being one of _the_ writers for the Shikon Weekly afforded him certain celebrity privileges of his own from time to time, plus he might have 'implied'that he was good friends with the head food critic over at Tama Cuisine magazine.

"You look…wow."

"Thanks," Kagome answered with a grin, tension melting off of her in waves. "You too."

And it was true, Inuyasha looked absolutely _wow _in his dark gray suit, the ensemble toned down away from strictly formal just enough by the absence of a tie and the first two buttons on his ivory shirt undone, as well as the jacket. There was an 'I'm-not-even-trying' sexiness to the hanyou that she wondered if he even knew about. If Kagome didn't know better, she'd swear he moonlighted as a male model on the side.

"Shall we?" the would-be male model asked in that moment, pulling Kagome from her mildly naughty thoughts. Little did she know her thoughts had only been mirroring his own.

"Definitely." she replied, exiting her apartment. After locking up, she graciously accepted the arm that was offered, and trying not to too obviously feel up his muscles, she walked with him out of her building and towards his car.

The drive was peaceful, silent, but not in an awkward way. Arriving at the restaurant, Kagome flashed Inuyasha a questioning look, knowing the place always got booked in advance around the holidays, but he merely smirked at her in answer and so smiling back, she decided not to pry into his secrets. At least not _those _kinds of secrets.

_You might not be able to really love somebody you don't know anything about, but my days of not knowing anything about Inuyasha are officially over_… she told herself in that moment, bound and determined to find a happy balance of dining and conversation so that she could find out everything she wanted to know without the pour guy feeling like she was giving him the third degree.

Inuyasha understood where she was coming from, though, and surprised Kagome by actually broaching the subject first after they placed their orders.

"Tell me about yourself." he requested simply, and only marginally taken aback, simply because that had been _her _line, Kagome grinned and conceded. What girl didn't like talking about herself? And he certainly had a right to know everything about her since she would then ask him to return the favor, which she teasingly warned him in advance. He merely nodded, and repeated, "You first."

So she told him about herself, her life growing up in a shrine, her training as a miko, and her growing desire as she got older to be anything _but _a shrine miko, although she didn't take her spiritual powers for granted. In fact she still studied with the regional spiritual leaders at least once a month, to keep herself sharp, and since she hadn't lost _all _sense of honor with regard to having come from a shrine family she was also registered as a reservist with the Spiritual Sect. She would only be called to 'duty' if the shit hit the fan, so to speak, and they needed every last human with spiritual powers to join the fight, otherwise she never had anything to do with the occasional 'youkai control' assignments that some spiritualists assisted the taijiya with. While they couldn't legally make a spiritual-born fight against their will, she had felt it was only right that she sign up for the reserves, like her father before her. Her mother, she explained, didn't have any spiritual powers of her own, the reiki coming from her father's side of the family. Perhaps that was why it had been easier for the woman to accept Kagome's desire to lead a normal life. She also told him about her little brother Souta, and how, unlike her, he was dedicated to staying at home and working at the shrine fulltime, which had eased the sting for her grandfather when she'd moved out, seeking a normal job and a normal lifestyle. She told him about her father next, and how he had died in a car accident when she was only ten and Souta three; her little brother hardly remembered him.

When it was his turn to speak, Inuyasha told Kagome about growing up with his mother, just the two of them. He only knew the story from the way she'd told it, but according to her she had met and fallen for his father one day while out in the woods on a camping trip. She ended up going back to see him several times, and one thing led to another, as the saying went. Where his demonic relatives were now, he couldn't say for sure, although according to his mother he had a full-blooded half-brother named Sesshoumaru that his father had told her about once, and apparently they all lived up in the clouds, in a castle in the air. A magical place that, as a hanyou, he could never go…or at least not without an invitation.

His father had apparently disappeared after Izayoi had become pregnant, so the general consensus between he and his mother growing up had been that she had been the 'other woman', Izayoi having felt that Inuyasha deserved to know the truth once he was old enough to understand. Whether the inu-youkai had actually abandoned his human lover or somebody had 'eliminated' him for his betrayal they would never know. She had stopped trying to look for him before giving birth, staying out of the woods. She had known that the youkai of the forest would be able to smell what she carried, and unlike humans, youkai had no laws of 'protection' in place for hanyou. Most youkai viewed humans as beneath them, and _breeding _with them was vile and traitorous. Despite the risk of retaliation from such lesser beings who were also numerous and dangerous, which was the real reason most youkai usually left humans alone, most species wouldn't have hesitated to eradicate the _abomination _in Izayoi's womb, consequences be damned, and so for the safety of her baby she'd let the fantasy of her canine champion returning for her one day die in favor of raising the cherished gift he'd left her with. Her family had been incredibly disappointed in her for having an affair, if you could call it that, with a 'wild animal', but nonetheless she had raised Inuyasha to the best of her ability, no thanks to anyone.

He'd had a relatively happy childhood, all things considered, but it had quickly been discovered that his mother had a life threatening heart condition, something hereditary and nobody's fault. He told Kagome of how his mother had passed while he had been a junior in high school, and how her older sister had _begrudgingly _taken him in until his eighteenth birthday, when she'd promptly kicked him out. Fortunately he'd already been working a few part-time jobs by then, having known he'd be needing the money, and so he'd had enough in savings to rent a room in a cheap motel. He knew he wanted a better life for himself, though; he knew he was _worth _more than that. He refused to let all of his mother's hopes and dreams die along with her and so when he'd seen the announcement for the new upcoming positions available at Shikon Weekly he'd jumped at the chance to actually make something of himself. He was positive his mother's family had to know what had become of him, _especially _after the stunt he'd pulled on the news last summer, but nobody had ever tried to contact him and so they could all rot in hell for all he cared.

"I'm sure your mother is very proud of you." Kagome stated softly, and Inuyasha appreciated how she spoke of his mother in the present tense. He too liked to think at times that she was still aware of him in the next life, whatever that may be, and that she looked down on him from time to time with a smile on her face.

With their life stories out of the way, Kagome finally felt comfortable enough to ask Inuyasha the single most nagging question that she'd wanted to ask him ever since she first started working with the guy.

"So…what the hell was your problem with me in the beginning?"

He laughed heartily at that, and Kagome smirked, having known by that point that she could be so candid. Inuyasha was nothing if not blunt and to the point.

"To be perfectly honest, I thought _you _were the one who had a problem with _me_." he admitted once his chuckling died down. "I mean, you were so…or at least you _seemed _so afraid of me when we first met, and being a miko, I'd figured you'd grown up hearing bedtime stories about the big-bad-youkai or something."

She gaped at him, and then… "I wasn't _afraid _of you. I was freakin' _attracted _to you!"

He only laughed again, having figured that much out for himself by that point.

"Well how the hell was I supposed to have known that, though?" he tried to get her to understand. "All I could tell was that your heart was beating faster, your breathing was shallow, and nobody _else _has ever been attracted to me before, so-"

"Nobody?" she interrupted, shock and disbelief flashing in her eyes, along with something else he couldn't quite identify.

"Well…" he sighed, unwilling to lie to the girl. "There was this _one _hussy who threw herself at me at a nightclub once, but I was working so I told her to get lost." Realizing how that sounded, he quickly amended and explained, "N-not that I w-would have be cool with it even if I'd been off the clock. She was _way _too into me, ya know? She clearly had a youkai fetish thing going on, and I've got no interest in women who are only interested in banging the freak 'cause it gets 'em off."

Kagome smiled at that, but a playful smile, amusement sparkling in her eyes.

Leaning over the table seductively, she teased, "And how do you know that's not what _I'm_ after?"

"Do you want a playful joke or do you want the real answer?"

Blinking in mild surprise, she sat back up straight and said, "Okay, what's the real answer?"

"Because while your crush confused me, because nervousness is nervousness and I'm not a freakin' mind reader, if you'd been _hot _for me, well…let's just say there's no mistaking _that _smell."

She blushed crimson at that but had to admit he made a valid point. Sure, she'd had a few…risqué fantasies from time to time in the privacy of her bathtub, but her attraction to Inuyasha was _not _purely physical and so clearly her body language had reflected that. She knew how she'd felt around him in the beginning, the butterflies, the giddiness, and she understood now how he'd misinterpreted those signs.

"And here I'd thought all this time that you surely had to know how I felt, and that _that _was why you were always such a bastard to me. Either that or it simply bothered you that I was a miko."

His eyes grew apologetic at her words, even though she'd spoken them casually enough, and reaching across the table for her hands he murmured tenderly, "I have tried to be nicer lately; I hope you've noticed. It's just that at first, sensing what I _thought _was your apprehension about being around me, and then you would always seem so nice, I'd thought you were-"

"Being nice for the sake of being nice." she answered for him, and he nodded.

Continuing, Kagome confessed, "There were a few times, because of the way I can sense a person's soul, that I wondered if you knew how I felt or not. A few times I got the distinct impression that you actually thought I _pitied _you or something, like I was being nice 'cause I thought of you as a charity case or something. But by the _gods _that wasn't it, and so then I tried to be even nicer to get you to see that I was genuine. Unfortunately, empathic as I am at times, it comes and goes, and I'm not a mind reader, either. I was…"

"Confused and apprehensive?" he supplied, and she nodded in agreement, before her eyes suddenly widened in recognition.

"That was _you?" _ she all but whispered, as if it was some kind of secret.

He merely shrugged, not all that embarrassed about it since he'd deliberately let it slip, wanting her to know.

"What can I say? I was getting desperate."

"You could have just talked to me, you know."

"So could you."

Sighing, Kagome smiled ruefully. "We're quite the pair, aren't we?"

He shrugged again. "There's no point in mulling over missed opportunities."

"You know…you're right." Kagome agreed with a nod of conviction.

The rest of their evening went by smoothly and playfully, light conversation intermixed with a few jokes and jabs here and there carrying them over into dessert, until it was – regrettably – time to leave.

The car ride back to her apartment was peaceful enough, if not also a bit on the somber side. Pulling into the parking garage, Kagome murmured half to herself, but consciously aware that he'd hear her, "I wish our night didn't have to end."

Glancing her way with wide eyes he gulped nervously, but somehow managed to swallow the giant lump in his throat as he mumbled nervously, "Me too."

Kagome smiled at that, but then before she could say anything else he was out of the car and dashing around to her side to open her door for her. Thanking him graciously, she wordlessly accepted his arm next, when he extended it out for her, as he silently escorted her back up to her apartment. Walking her to her door was the gentlemanly thing to do anyway, right? He wouldn't be so presumptuous; not unless she specifically said-

"Would you…like to come in?" she asked as they reached her door and she released his arm to reach for the keys in her clutch.

The almost panicked look in his eyes made Kagome want to laugh. In fact she did snicker, just a little bit, when he remained silent for what she deemed two seconds too long.

"Good grief Inuyasha, it's not like I asked you to _marry _me. I really like you and I'm enjoying your company, and just thought if you were game that we could hang out for a while longer, talking and visiting some more?" she finished questioningly, the look in her own eyes a little shy though also still amused despite herself.

He loosened up at her teasing, though, and with a fangy grin he muttered a quiet "Keh." before following her indoors, which earned louder laughter from the girl that in turn made him smile. He loved the sound of her laughter.

Offering Inuyasha the official 'tour', the hanyou easily complied, actually appreciating Kagome's apartment. It was only one bedroom, one bath, as was to be expected, but square-footage wise it was actually rather decent, comparable to his own apartment. He hadn't missed the little wooden music box sitting on her vanity, and he grinned a little to himself to know she'd actually liked it. He _loved _her painting of him, which was hanging on the wall right in his living room.

Pulling him out of his mild thoughts with the question of if he'd like a cup of coffee, he replied "Sure." and in no time the heavenly aroma of dark French roast was filling the air.

Having a seat on the couch while waiting for his coffee, Kagome told Inuyasha to relax and make himself at home. Hesitantly, per her insistence since she could tell how uncomfortable he was, he removed his shoes and jacket, remaining clad in dress shirt, slacks and socks. She'd really captured his truest essence in that painting of hers, and one particular thing about him, subtle though it might be, was that he actually hated wearing shoes. He supposed it stemmed from his inu half, some kind of animalistic revulsion to having anything cover his feet. Aside from horses, and they didn't really count, if you tried putting more standard shoes on any animal's paws they'd most likely freak out trying to remove them, unless you happened to own a pampered pet who'd been conditioned for clothing since day one. He could handle _clothing _without any issue – he _was _half human too, after all – but his mom had always let him run around barefoot whenever possible and so shoes were one of the inconveniences of living in human society that he'd honestly rather do without. Whenever he was on the job stalking he wore a small backpack that housed not only his extra camera lenses, but also a simple pair of sandals. As he'd follow celebrities around town or simply scour the city in search of his next victim he always did so barefooted, having the sandals with him for when he might need to enter an establishment of some kind.

"This might sound cheesy and cliché, but I'm going to go slip into something more comfortable." Kagome joked, pulling Inuyasha from his thoughts.

"And here I am without my camera." was his retort, which earned a snorted laugh from the miko before she disappeared down the hall and into her bedroom.

She emerged only a few minutes later wearing a simple short-sleeve white cotton blouse and skirt, barefoot, her hair let down from its bun to spill messily around her shoulders. She looked…cute.

"I prefer your hair down." he told her shyly, and she smiled, heading past him and into the kitchen to fetch their coffee.

"Cream and sugar?"

"Keh."

"Okay, now you're doing it on purpose." Kagome laughed as she returned to the couch with their drinks, handing him his cup before taking a seat on the sofa to his left. His eyes sparkled as he took a sip of his coffee, truly delighting in her company.

"So what other miko tricks do ya got up your sleeves?" he asked casually, taking another sip.

She was mildly surprised by the question but answered him easily enough, telling him about her powers. How she could make wards and barriers like Miroku, as well as charge up projectiles – traditionally an arrow though she could really use anything – with purifying energy. She did know how to shoot a bow, of course, archery lessons part of her monthly training to stay sharp.

He whistled, impressed. "Remind me never to get on your bad side." he joked.

"It doesn't bother you?" she asked timidly. "I'd thought, at times, that maybe it was just sensing my miko aura that turned you off to me, even maybe just on a more instinctive level, if like our energies just clashed or something, like the feel of my reiki put your youkai side on edge."

Tilting his head to the side in consideration, he sat his coffee down on the side table to his right before shaking his head and answering, "Nah, that was never it. Believe it or not, I actually like the fact that you're a miko. Your reiki doesn't agitate my youki, and knowing that _you _know that you could kick my ass if need be takes away any apprehension on my part that you might actually fear me."

"I thought you _did _think I feared you." she stated, confused.

Blushing a little, he amended, "I thought at first, that first day meeting me, that you were afraid yeah, but mainly because you'd been caught off guard and had been raised up to fear youkai. After that I thought more that you were just wary of me, because you thought hanyou couldn't be trusted. I thought you were more disgusted with me, really, than actually, genuinely afraid, and that maybe you were also in a way disgusted with yourself because of it, for being racist, and so that's why you were always trying to be so nice despite your obvious discomfort, like you were arguing with yourself over how I should be treated. Still though, I thought that deep down inside you were repulsed by me, and nervous despite yourself because you truly believed that hanyou couldn't be trusted."

"Well nothing could be further from the truth." she admitted, a light blush dusting her own cheeks.

"Is that so?" he teased, laughing as her blush only darkened.

"Enough about me!" she stated abruptly. "Tell me about your youkai powers."

"So you _do _have a youkai fetish!" he exclaimed, laughing heartily as she shrank into herself.

"Guess we'll never find out." she muttered under her breath as a dig, loud enough for him to hear.

Gasping as if she'd struck him, he adopted a horror-filled expression worthy of a reprimanded Miroku that had her laughing in turn. Sobering a little then, he sent her a playful yet sincere smile, and then shaking his head in amusement he decided to answer her question, telling her about his various natural abilities from being half youkai. Everyone already knew he was stronger and faster than a human, and that his hearing, eyesight and sense of smell were so much more superior to theirs, but he confided in Kagome in that moment that he also knew of and how to use two distinctly different youki-based 'attacks' for lack of a better word, that he could conjure up within himself from his inherited youkai magic.

When she asked him how he'd learned of his powers he confessed that, as a young adolescent, he would sometimes spend his free time in the neighboring forests, not really looking for his roots but more just because he felt _drawn _to the woods, to being up in the trees. Kagome blushed at the intensity of the look he gave her as he stated that last part, but it was true, that _was _one of his favorite pastimes. Especially after his mother died. He spent nearly every second he could in the woods just to stay away from his aunt. Unfortunately, not all of the forest youkai were willing to share, and so a few times when he was sixteen he'd suddenly found himself fighting for his life. He never reported it because killing a youkai wasn't a crime, at least so long as it was self-defense and not some radical mass-extinction campaign, plus he hadn't wanted to worry his mother. Knowing his own strength and instinctively moving to fight with his claws, he'd discovered his soul-shattering iron claw technique relatively quickly, and grinning in triumph he'd presumptuously thought himself untouchable, as most sixteen-year-old boys did. After he was seventeen and living with his aunt he'd even spent a few nights outdoors when she was in one of her 'moods' and so it had really only been a matter of time before something bigger and stronger than him was able to get a few blows in. Wounded one predawn morning, he'd discovered his blades of blood technique purely by accident.

"It's not like I go looking for trouble, but if I get deep enough into youkai territory then trouble comes looking for _me_." he stated with an exasperated sigh. "So instead I'm stuck in the human world, where I'm _still _not wanted."

Suddenly setting her cup down on the coffee table in front of them, Kagome scooted herself closer to Inuyasha's position, and reaching up she placed both of her hands on the sides of his face, making sure she had his complete attention.

"That's not true." she stated with conviction. "I can't speak for anyone else, and I _do _know that racism against your kind exists, but _I _do not feel that way. _I _want you in my world."

He could do nothing but blink at her in utter amazement. This woman, this wholly wonderful, kind, caring, _loving _woman was telling him he was wanted. Honesty was pouring from her in a steady stream, and her wonderful, delicate scent, mixed with the tender sensation of her soft hands gently cupping his cheeks, was more than he could take. Suddenly, an almost overwhelming feeling bubbled up from deep within his very core, and before Inuyasha even knew what he was doing he was leaning forward, his eyes drifting shut.

Kagome was surprised when she saw Inuyasha starting to lean his face in towards hers, but not in a bad way. Having _almost _loved this man for so long now, she readily accepted the sensation of his lips pressing hesitantly against her own, kissing him back with added force to make sure he _knew _the move was not unwanted. It was over just as quickly as it'd begun, as he pulled back just enough to look into her eyes, desperately searching for the truth behind her reaction. Letting her hands drop from his face, she sat there motionlessly, gazing back into his eyes just as intensely. She didn't know for sure what he was seeing, hearing or smelling as he studied her, but she knew what _she _could feel in his aura, his desire for her almost pulsing in waves that crashed against her very soul. She had never been the type to allow anything more than a chaste kiss on the first date, but in that moment, as she gazed into his searching, molten pools of honey, Kagome didn't feel as if they were rushing anything in the slightest. She felt like she was _finally _being gifted the opportunity to have her every dream come true.

Mind made up, she decided to make the next move, smirking a little before leaning forward to recapture his lips with her own. She could feel his surprise, but much like how she had responded to his initial kiss Inuyasha immediately complied, hesitantly reaching his right hand up to cup the back of her head as he followed her example by deepening the kiss himself that time, lightly nipping on her bottom lip in a silent request for entry that she immediately granted. Something began stirring from deep within his being as their tongues languidly dueled for dominance, his left hand climbing up to cup the right side of her face while her arms wrapped up and around his neck, and a large part of him didn't want to fight it. A smaller part of him was in denial that this was even happening, insisting that it couldn't be real, but she certainly _felt _real in his arms, and the scent of her growing excitement certainly _smelled _real as it invaded his nose and sent signals directly to his brain that then made a B-line straight for his groin.

_Holy shit_… he nearly panicked as 'that' scent reached his nose and affected 'that' part of his body. Just how far was Kagome willing to go?

Finally pulling back from the kiss, his lips immediately mourned the loss of contact as he gazed into her hooded eyes, smirking a little despite himself at how heavily she was panting for air. Still, though, raw male pride notwithstanding, they needed to cool it before things got out of hand.

"Kagome…" he spoke up softly, unsure of what he wanted to say.

"Inuyasha…" she moaned in reply, leaning forward to gently nip his chin and neck.

"Damn, woman, you're not making this easy." he chuckled, one part of his anatomy feeling perfectly content to let her continue. Still, though, he had to think with his _big _head. "Kagome…" he spoke up again in that moment, gently pushing her back until she was once again sitting up straight before him, this time gazing up at him with questioning, almost hurt eyes.

"Kagome I…ah hell don't look at me like that." he laughed gently, hooking his right index finger under her chin. "You don't know how hard this is for me." he murmured soothingly, hoping she'd understand.

"What is?" she asked, her eyes searching his. "Being with me, or resisting me?"

"_Resisting _you." he clarified without shame. "I just think…" He cleared his throat nervously. "…that it would be better if we…" What was he trying to say again?

"I understand." she answered softly. "I…I'm sorry. It wasn't my intention to pressure you into anything you weren't ready for."

Kagome moved to stand up but was suddenly yanked back down onto the couch by the hand that lunged for her arm at demonic speed. She blinked at him in surprise, but her expression immediately softened at the almost desperate look in his eyes.

"_Fuck _woman, that's supposed to be _my _line." he laughed nervously. Clearing his throat again, Inuyasha managed to explain, "I just…I just don't want you to regret…anything. I would hate to ruin whatever this might be that's developing between us."

Kagome smiled at that, and then raising her left hand to cup his right cheek, she asked him, "What about you? Will you regret anything?"

"Only if you ended up hating me for it."

"I could _never_ hate you." she emphasized, moments before leaning in for another kiss.

"So long…as…you're…sure…" he answered in between kisses, the only scents coming off of Kagome all unanimously screaming how badly she wanted him, with varying degrees of erotic intensity.

He had been worried she would later accuse him of seducing her, since he had been the one to kiss her first and she'd seemed to melt into him so quickly as a result, but now he understood…that one first kiss…that hadn't been enough to erase her higher brain functions, it had actually _triggered _a few higher brain functions, as she'd quickly taken a moment to truly think about it, deciding what she wanted. So if she had reached the conclusion that she was ready and willing to take things further with him, and not place any of the guilt for this night on his shoulders should things ultimately end up not working out, then who was he to complain if she wanted to give him this additional Christmas gift?

No more words were spoken as he kissed her hungrily in that moment, pouring every ounce of loneliness he'd ever felt from his entire life into that one kiss, almost desperately needing her to take it away. He got the feeling that she could feel it, what he wanted, what he needed, as it felt almost as if she were siphoning his loneliness out of him through their kisses, replacing that sensation with completion, oneness, and the feeling of being loved.

Kagome's hands, which were once again wrapped around his neck, slowly began climbing higher as their kissing grew more intense. He braved vacating the immediate vicinity of her mouth to nip and nibble on her chin before trailing his tongue along her throat, and she moaned encouragingly, tilting her head back to grant him better access. Fisting his hair, he rumbled approvingly as she tugged, using her grip on him to almost steer him where she wanted him to go. He trailed his tongue down one side of her throat and up the other before returning to her mouth, plundering her easily as she surrendered to the invasion of his exploring tongue. Who knew the grumpy, leave-me-alone hanyou was such a passionate lover?

Inuyasha certainly hadn't known, not that he was complaining, since Kagome wasn't. He was functioning almost purely on instinct, plus borrowing a few moves he'd seen in the occasional 'adult' film he'd rent on his cable. Just because he'd never actually been with a woman before didn't mean he was a prude; he enjoyed a good porno just the same as most any other single guy.

Continuing to kiss her senseless, Inuyasha tried to pay attention to how strongly she was pulling his hair, wanting to make sure she wasn't actually trying to pull him away from her, which she definitely wasn't. He was just so much stronger than her, she would never have any chance of shoving him away if he resisted. But he would stop in less than a heartbeat if she so much as mouthed the word 'stop' and so far, with the way her head was tilted back, baring her throat, none of the sounds that were pouring out of her sounded anything even remotely close to a request for him to cease what he was doing.

Without warning her right hand suddenly climbed higher in that moment, cupping his left ear, and he jerked back in surprise. Nobody had ever touched his ears before except for his mother, and she had only ever done so when he'd been a small child, rubbing them tenderly while brushing his hair.

Kagome was immediately plunged back into full cognizant awareness, apprehension quickly rising in her stomach, terrified she had overstepped her bounds and offended him.

"I'm sorry, I-" she immediately tried to apologize, though he quickly interrupted her with a finger to her lips, shushing her gently.

"It's okay…" he stated softly, reaching up with his left hand to rub his own ear a few times, the appendage still tingling. "I just wasn't expecting that."

"I won't do it again."

He grinned crookedly at that, hating the nervousness that was flooding her scent though he resisted crinkling his nose in disgust of the smell for fear she would misunderstand the expression. Besides, he knew how to get that dreadful, smelly nervousness to leave her.

"No…it's okay." he murmured tenderly, reaching for her right hand and placing it back upon his left ear. "You're not some get-your-freak-on girl with my youkai features, I know that. You…you actually _like _me, for _me_, but who I am is an inu-hanyou and so there's nothing wrong with you wanting to touch my ears."

Kagome gazed up at Inuyasha in awe at his words, her eyes slowly drifting up toward the appendages in question as she slowly, tenderly rubbed the soft and fuzzy flap of skin between her thumb and fingers. A naughtier part of herself buried deep down in the back of her mind had to admit, at least to herself, that she could understand where the 'youkai freaks' got their attraction. Most people were actually rather repulsed by a hanyou's inhuman attributes, but she most definitely was not. She thought his looks overall were intriguing, exotic even, and to be perfectly honest she thought his ears themselves were _cute_. But she most certainly wasn't _only _drawn to Inuyasha through physical attraction, she…she loved him. She knew just about everything there was to know about the man now, and her feelings for him had only intensified all throughout the evening as she listened to his tales. Perhaps it was too premature to say she was _in _love with him, but she definitely loved him on some level.

s

Of course, part of loving someone was being physically attracted to them and desiring intimate contact with their body. With that last thought in mind, Kagome smirked wickedly, her grin only widening as Inuyasha raised a questioning eyebrow at her expression.

"There's nothing wrong with _you _wanting to touch _me_, either." she stated huskily, before quickly reaching for his right hand with her left and bringing it up to cup her left breast through her shirt. "Or had you only wanted to kiss all night?"

His eyes widened at her brazenness, though he couldn't help the playful chuckle that escaped his lips as he deliberately palmed her breast, molding and squeezing the supple flesh through the layers of cloth blocking his view of her. Her only response was to arch her back, pressing herself even more firmly into his grasp, her right hand still continuing to mess with his ear. Laughing outright after a moment, he released her chest, reaching for her left hand with his right. His eyes sparkling merrily, he wrenched a shocked gasp from the girl's throat as he showed her just how brazen _he _could be, bringing her hand to the crotch of his pants so that she could feel _exactly _what she did to him.

"Does this feel like I only want to kiss all night?" he asked her, waggling his eyebrows up and down.

He couldn't say if he'd been expecting Kagome to jerk her hand away in embarrassment or leave it be in shock, but he definitely hadn't expected her to merely close her fingers around the bulge in his pants, offering his erection a firm but gentle squeeze. He closed his eyes, hissing in pleasure while his hips rocked a little against his will.

"I think it feels…like we should move this to my bedroom."

"Good idea." he rasped, bolting to his feet and sweeping her up into his arms bridal style all before she could blink.

She squealed in surprise at the move, but with a definite chuckle of amusement, as he quickly rushed the two of them down the hall and practically threw her onto her bed before climbing up to join her.

"I…I should warn you, I've never…" he admitted shyly as he gazed down into her eyes. He couldn't spit the rest of it out, but he didn't have to.

"I know." she murmured tenderly, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"You…you know?"

She nodded. "You already told me."

"No I didn't…" His eyes were unsure, searching his memory.

"Remember at dinner when we were discussing how you'd misread my attraction to you?" He nodded slowly, not yet catching on. "You said you hadn't known how to read the signs because nobody had ever been attracted to you before, not including the slut at the club that hadn't interested you. So if you're not 'into' the kind of girls who are 'into' youkai, and nobody else besides me has ever really _liked _you…"

"Yeah…guess I did kinda out myself with that one. Whoops." he joked lightly as she made her point. "You don't mind?" he asked, self-conscious.

Shaking her head in the negative, Kagome offered him a warm smile, raising her right hand back up to cup his left cheek. "I feel privileged."

Her smirked down at her cockily at that, and jokingly said, "As well you should." before lowering his body over hers, his tongue reclaiming her chin and neck while her light giggling had his lips quirking up into a more serious smile against her skin.

It didn't take long at all for things between them to progress beyond mere kissing, the feel of Inuyasha's excitement resting snugly against her center causing the fire in Kagome's veins to burn all the hotter. Before he knew it, her hands were in between their bodies, fingers frantically tugging his shirt out from where it was tucked into his pants before diligently working to unfasten all of the buttons. He offered her no resistance, and once he felt the last button come undone he paused in his attacks on her throat to back away enough to remove his dress shirt, revealing the white tank top he wore underneath. Chuckling at the almost disappointed look in Kagome's eyes when she realized he wasn't yet topless above her he decided to oblige her silent request by immediately pulling his tank off over his head as well, and then his upper body was bare to her greedy eyes. He felt no embarrassment or self-consciousness as she gazed up at him both hungrily and appreciatively; he didn't need to worry about what she might think of his physique when she was looking at him _that _way. He quickly found that so long as it was _Kagome _who was staring at him like a piece of meat then he didn't mind it all that much, knowing that she had other feelings for him that went hand in hand with her current lust.

Quickly deciding that fair was fair, it was then Inuyasha's turn to wrestle with the buttons on Kagome's blouse; his claws made the task a little more daunting but he refused to slice through her clothing in his haste. Closing his eyes and slowing his breathing for a moment as he tried to calm himself down, he then got back to work on her buttons at a more normal pace, and quickly completed his task by opening her blouse to reveal her white, lacy bra.

"Now I know you weren't wearing this thing at dinner."

Blushing a little, Kagome explained briefly, "That dress…it fits me well enough that I don't need pasties, but I wasn't about to come back out in a _white _blouse with no bra on."

He smirked down at her. "Oh? Why not? Would've made your devious little plan that much easier."

She chuckled a little before sobering slightly, gazing up at him with sincere eyes.

"You know I didn't explicitly plan this, right?"

"Yeah yeah yeah…" he waved off, before mumbling, "Seductress." under his breath but loud enough for her to hear. She giggled when she saw the way his eyes were sparkling in amusement, clearly teasing her.

"Okay, your turn to help," he stated then, gesturing to her brazier, "'cause I've got no idea how to unfasten that thing."

Chuckling a little though not laughing _at _him, Kagome merely smirked before sitting up a little, letting her opened shirt slide down her arms before then twisting said arms behind herself to unhook the clasp at her back. Inuyasha could immediately tell the moment her bra was unhooked because of the way it slackened, and he made Kagome squeal in surprise and laughter as he suddenly shoved her down to again lie flat on her back before swiftly diving down and pulling her bra away with his teeth.

"Shhhh…quiet will you? Doesn't Sango live next door?" he teased, adding, "That's all I need, for her to tell the pervert and then for the pervert to harass me day and night for details."

Kagome only laughed again at that, before assuring him playfully, "No worries, Sango's actually staying the night with the pervert, so we can be as loud as we want. Sure, other people might hear us, but we don't work with them so I don't care."

He chuckled at that. Hey, she was the one who was going to have to face them in the halls, so if she didn't mind them hearing her scream like a banshee that was her decision.

"Besides, I already promised to give Sango all the details tomorrow morning, so Miroku's gonna find out anyway."

"_What?" _

She laughed again at the almost panicked look on his face. It was clear to her in that moment that it wasn't the 'her telling Sango' part that he had a problem with, although the truth was she wouldn't tell Sango the more _intimate _details, but what really had Inuyasha frazzled was the idea of Miroku hounding _him _for the more juicy tidbits.

"Relax, Inuyasha…" Kagome soothed behind a giggle. "Why are we thinking of those two right now, anyway? I can think of a lot better things we should be concentrating on. I mean, if Miroku's gonna be a pest come Monday no matter _what, _then…how does that line in the song go? Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about?"

He smirked down at her at that, finally realizing that for the last minute or so she'd been lying below him completely topless, and here he'd been too distracted to even enjoy it properly.

"You're absolutely right." he answered her then, before leaning down to capture her right nipple in his mouth.

She moaned in pleasure, arching her back to press herself more fully into his mouth, and he immediately complied at her silent request, laving her entire breast with his tongue before switching off to the other one, giving it identical treatment. Several times his tongue made its way back up to her mouth, absolutely loving the sensation of kissing her, all the while their lower bodies, which were still fully clothed, began rocking and grinding in perfect timing with each other, causing _both _of them to moan in pleasure.

"Pants…off…" she managed to rasp between kisses, reaching her hands between them again in an attempt to unfasten his belt.

Reaching for his slacks himself, he grabbed her hands to still their movements before raising himself up onto his knees to more properly unfasten his trousers. He quickly pulled them off, along with his socks, while Kagome simultaneously shimmied out of her skirt, leaving both of them clad only in their underwear. Inuyasha then lowered himself back down to the bed off to the side of her, so that they were now lying next to one another rather than him pressing down on top of her with all of his weight. The truth was he had been getting a little _too _excited, the way they'd been rocking together, and he didn't want to risk doing anything that would humiliate himself on this first of what he hoped would be many nights alone with Kagome.

The miko in question didn't stay idle for long, quickly propping herself up onto her left side so that she was facing Inuyasha who was laying on his right. Reaching forward, she began exploring the rest of his body with her right hand, and wordlessly he let her, staring into her eyes with a sensual smile as she trailed her fingers down his chest towards the hard plains of his abs. Coming upon the erect bulge in his black boxer briefs, Kagome tentatively began palming him, slowly at first, examining his size. He closed his eyes then, a quiet moan escaping his lips as he let her have her way with him.

"I can't believe this is really happening." she whispered to herself in awe, a human man might not have heard her.

"_You _can't?" he joked, reopening his eyes to gaze at her in both amusement and wonder.

She blushed a little for getting busted thinking aloud, but she stood by what she'd said.

"This whole night has been like a dream come true…" she told him sincerely, before morphing her grin into an almost wicked smirk, sitting up to tower over him as she gently pressed on his left hip until he got the hint and rolled over to lie flat on his back. "And now…I'm going to make one of my naughtier fantasies come true."

Before he could brave asking her what she might specifically mean by that, he suddenly found his briefs yanked down to his ankles, his freed erection springing to life before quickly being encased once again, this time in the searing heat of Kagome's wet mouth.

"Oh fuck!" he cried out in shock, unprepared for the sheer intensity of pleasure that was suddenly and savagely wrecking havoc on his mind and body.

Jamming his claws into the comforter at his sides in a desperate attempt to remain grounded, Inuyasha could do nothing but hold on for the ride as she took his body to heights never before imagined. Sure, he'd masturbated before, repeatedly, but that was _nothing _compared to the sensation of her tongue swirling around his sensitive tip while she pumped the base with her hand, or the feel of her throat muscles contracting around his entire length as she swallowed him whole.

_Talented bitch! _ he cursed in his mind, knowing enough from the various movies he'd rented over the years to know that he was well above average.

"Fucking…gah! Stop!" he panted, yanking her away from him by her hair he hoped not so hard that it'd hurt her. But the last thing he wanted was to accidentally finish in her mouth. Maybe…one day…but definitely not right now, not for their first night together. Not for his first time being with another person.

Kagome did not look offended from his rough handling as she regained herself and glanced up to meet his eyes, the look in her own promising so much more to come. Laughing almost hysterically, just because he was so fucking _happy_, Inuyasha frantically kicked his briefs the rest of the way off his ankles and feet to land somewhere on the floor, his haste causing Kagome to giggle as well.

"I'll let you do the honors." she stated seductively as she lied back on her side of the bed, and immediately understanding her meaning he didn't hesitate to reach for and gently tug down her white cotton panties. Her _damp _white cotton panties.

Immediately upon freeing her womanhood to his hungry gaze his nose was simultaneously accosted by the unhindered fragrance of her desire, and like a male dog getting turned on hormonally by the scent of a bitch in heat his inu half _roared_ with lust at the thought of this woman being so ready to receive him. He supposed it was his human half that had prevented him from being interested in the slut at the club that one time, but he _knew _Kagome, and he _liked _Kagome, and knowing that she _wanted _him was almost enough to do him in right then and there. The bitch's teasing certainly hadn't helped. He wanted this to _last_, damn it.

He also wanted to give her as much pleasure as she'd given him, though despite her own actions he felt he'd better ask first, just in case.

"Kagome…I can't…that is, my claws…" he murmured apologetically, holding up his hand for emphasis. He noticed a tiny bit of stuffing from her comforter stuck under his nails and quickly lowered his hand, blushing.

_Oops_…

"But…" he spoke back up, clearing his throat nervously. Why was this so hard to say? "Ah hell…just tell me no 'n' I'll stop." he finally settled for, shimmying himself down the length of her body to get into position.

It was obvious to Kagome what he'd been trying to ask her once his position became clear, and she had no intention of stopping him, which she illustrated for him by opening her legs to grant him better access.

Feeling reassured at her silent response, he tentatively gave her most private place an experimental lick, and immediately feeling a swell of pride at her _very _positive reaction, he didn't hesitate to start lapping at her like the dog he was, intent on making her release at least once before accepting any more pleasure for himself.

Kagome was quickly reduced to a sweaty pile of shaking muscles, fisting the blankets at her sides tightly as her body jerked and jumped as he touched her in all the right places. She didn't know how he'd mastered the perfect technique when he'd never even done this before, though she supposed she could guess how he might have learned through observation, but that still made him one hell of a fast learner, not that she was complaining.

"Oh kami!"

No, not complaining at all.

It had been forever since she'd been with a man, and her ex-boyfriend, Hojo, had never been all that enthusiastic when it came to what Inuyasha was presently doing. Maybe it was because he was half canine that he seemed to be enjoying himself so much, and if so then she could _really _understand where the supposed 'youkai freaks' were coming from, but either way she knew where _she _would be 'coming' from in only a few short minutes if he didn't stop his delicious torture, and she didn't want him to stop!

"Oh kami…oh _fuck_…don't stop! Don't stop!" she panted frantically, her head shaking from side to side as if she were possessed.

Smirking against her flesh, Inuyasha had no intention of stopping. He absolutely _loved _the taste of Kagome and he would be content to do this all night if it weren't for the almost painful throbbing between his legs that provided a constant reminder that the best part was yet to come…no pun intended. But he knew that the 'best' part was really a matter of perspective, and so Kagome's pleasure definitely came before his own…okay pun intended that time.

As she began squirming more violently below him he reached up with both hands to hold her thighs in place, and it didn't take too much longer before the miko was squealing her release, her entire body locking stiff for half a second before she was suddenly almost frantically trying to crawl out from under him, her feet kicking in a desperate attempt to get away. He didn't let her go at first, remembering something he'd read once, and in no time he was rewarded as she cried out a second time, pleasure so intense it almost bordered on pain causing tears to slip sideways down her temples. All she had to say was-

"Gah! No more, okay stop! Please!" she panted, a hysterical chuckle escaping her lungs between heaving gulps of air.

Gazing up into his eyes almost deliriously as he crawled over her body to gaze down at her sated face with a lopsided grin on his glistening lips, Kagome smirked after regaining herself and commented, "I can see why that woman was interested in you, but I'm glad you turned her away. I want you _all _to myself, though with me, it won't all be _about _me." Her smile turned more sincere as she raised her arms up to cup his shoulders as he held himself above her on outstretched arms. "Come to me, lover. It's _your _turn now."

His grin only grew wider at her words, and silently complying, he lowered himself until his body was lying flush against her own, her legs still spread wide with his own lying in between them. Leaning over slightly onto his left, he reached for himself with his right hand and aligned himself at her entrance.

"Kagome…" he murmured, more speaking to himself in a moment of awe than anything else. How the hell had he once thought this woman was racist against him? The opposite was true, it seemed; their 'sweet, innocent' Kagome had a bit of a youkai fetish after all, not that he minded.

"I'm here…" she soothed at the sound of his voice, her hands trailing up to capture both of his ears, rubbing tenderly in delicate circles that sent shivers down his spine.

No, he didn't mind it at all.

Slowly, wary of causing her discomfort even though he knew she wasn't a virgin, Inuyasha gradually pressed himself forward, hissing in pleasure through clinched teeth as the sensation of her inner muscles fully encasing him compared to absolutely nothing he'd ever felt before in his entire life. Her earlier oral teasing came the closest, but even so, _nothing _was like the real thing. With no resistance stopping his descent halfway he continued pressing forward at a slow and steady pace until he was fully engulfed in her wet heat, sheathed to the hilt, and he took a moment to just lie there, breathing through his nose with eyes closed while she continued to fondle his ears.

Kagome was mesmerized by the expression of pure pleasure on Inuyasha's face as he rested above her, and she was humbled by the knowledge that it was within _her _that he had found such fulfillment. But he wasn't the only one feeling that way in that moment because the feel of him filling her up made Kagome realize how much she'd been lacking until that very moment. She'd been missing such an important piece of herself, and a part of her must have known it because that had to be why she'd been so continually drawn to him regardless of his harsh attitude towards her. That was why she'd been so persistent, hurt but not detoured every time he avoided her attempts at friendship, and why she'd felt so giddy like a schoolgirl every time he offered her even the remotest hint of kindness. Feeling his naked body lying flush atop her own, feeling him _inside _of her in the most intimate way possible, Kagome finally felt whole, complete, and stretching her senses to scan him with her aura revealed to the empathic miko that he felt the exact same way.

Inuyasha sensed it as Kagome wrapped her aura around him, but he didn't mind it. His youkai side felt unthreatened by the woman below him despite her miko powers as he both felt and scented that she meant him no harm. In fact, it was rather obvious that she meant him just about the _opposite _of harm, and he charged up his youki in that moment with equal, nonhostile emotions, letting her know that he felt the same way.

Kagome could feel it as his youki started to stir, easily realizing what he was doing as she felt waves of acceptance and partnership wash over her. A normal human would not be able to read the intent behind his increase in power, feeling only discomfort from his energy assuming they could sense his demonic aura at all, but she knew that he knew that she could _read _him, and now that they'd both gotten their heads out of their asses it made for excellent, wordless communication, now that they were no longer misinterpreting each other.

She lowered her hands from his ears, then, wrapping her arms around his back in an embrace that easily articulated just what he meant to her. His eyes fluttered open to meet her gaze with his own at the sensation, and they smiled at each other; no words were needed.

Not that he could have spoken even if he'd wanted to.

_Oh my fucking gods_… he thought in wonder as it slowly dawned on him that as of that moment he was on longer a virgin. If there _were _gods of fucking then he owed them his thanks, he thought with a silly chuckle as he slowly began retracting his hips before pressing forward once more.

Over and over again he moved his hips, gradually increasing his tempo with every pass. He wanted to grab Kagome's waist in his hands and slam himself forward at lightening speed, he wanted to take her legs and fling them over his shoulders, raise himself up onto his knees and hammer into her like there was no tomorrow, but it was all he could do to keep his casual pace in the missionary position without losing it. He'd never felt more like a man and more like a loser at the same time before, and it was a mildly disconcerting mix of emotions, but ultimately he knew that Kagome liked him just the way he was, and so as he felt that telltale tingle start climbing its way up his groin he wasn't worried about disappointing her. Not that he hadn't disappointed himself a little bit, but he'd get over it.

"Damn it…I…I wanted the first time to last." he grumbled, increasing the speed of his thrusts as his instincts took over in an almost animalistic search for gratification.

"Gah!" he cried as his climax quickly took him over, his hips locking still as his body shook, burying his face in the crook of her neck.

He remained motionless as Kagome's hands began rubbing his back up and down in a reassuring pattern. "That's okay." she soothed, figuring he was feeling self-conscious about it. "It's perfectly natural to finish quickly when it's your first time, there's nothing to feel ashamed of."

Raising his face back up to meet her eyes, he gave her an almost predatory grin.

"Who said I was _finished?" _he asked with a sultry edge to his voice, retracting his hips before pushing back in again. He chuckled as Kagome's eyes widened in realization; he was still hard.

"I _had _wanted that first time to last longer, but you know, you're right. It was my first time, and so I won't feel embarrassed for peaking so soon, but I'm _far _from _finished_." he promised her with a devilish waggle of his eyebrows.

_Oh my…youkai stamina_… she thought giddily.

"I've created a monster." she joked aloud before a gasp of pleasure was suddenly wrenched from her throat as he demonstrated the fact that he was now able to alter their positions, raising himself up onto his knees while taking her lower half with him.

"Oh like you're complaining." he teased as he started thrusting at a much faster pace.

"Not…at…all." she answered between gasps, locking her legs behind his waist while her hands gripped the bars of her headboard to keep from sliding back and hitting her head.

Inuyasha grinned at the sight of her breasts bouncing in time with his thrusts, no hint of a second orgasm getting ready to race up on him any time soon, though even when it did he would still be able to keep going; it was going to be a _long _night.

oooOoooOoooOooo

The following morning Kagome awoke to the gentle stirring of somebody beside her in the bed shifting their position. Immediately remembering all that had taken place the night before, the two of them _finally _getting to sleep around three in the morning after hours of bringing each other to heights never before imagined, Kagome cracked her eyes open to smile up at Inuyasha, catching the hanyou in the act as he gazed down at her with a warm smile from his place sitting up beside her.

"Morning…" she murmured sleepily, yawning before moving to sit up as well.

The blanket fell down around her waist as she sat up, exposing her bare chest, but she made no move to conceal her breasts from his gaze and, amazingly enough, he felt more content than playful at the sight, able to let it go without teasing or groping her.

"Merry Christmas." he stated after a moment, to which she replied, "Mmm…yes it is." as she stretched some of the kinks out of her back.

"So…" he spoke up hesitantly after a couple of minutes sitting together in silence. "I hate to ruin the moment, but I'm new to all this, so…where do we go from here?"

Unoffended, though nervous, Kagome thought she'd better choose her words very carefully.

"Where do _you _want to go from here?"

"Uh-uh…" he argued playfully, "I want to know how _you _feel."

Sighing, Kagome gulped, fiddling with her hands in her lap for a moment before hesitantly glancing back up to meet his eyes, the look in her own almost desperate, beseeching.

"I think…I think I love you, and I would really like for us to be together, in a relationship. Like I joked last night, I'm not asking you to marryme, not _yet _anyway, but I would love for you to be my boyfriend, which could potentially lead to something more permanent sometime down the road, assuming our relationship is successful."

He sighed in relief at her words, having started to fear, at least for a moment, that she might want to keep whatever this was between them a secret, that she wouldn't want it getting around the office that she'd fucked the half-breed.

While Kagome couldn't read his exact thoughts, she could easily feel his relief, and she sighed in relief herself as a result, glad to know that she'd apparently said what he wanted to hear.

"Kagome, I…" he spoke up then, reaching for her hand and cupping it in his own. "I wish I could tell you that I love you too, but I just want to be absolutely certain that what I'm beginning to feel for you is genuine before making you any false promises. That being said, the only way to know for sure, I think, is for us to be together, so yes, I will _gladly _be in an official relationship with you."

She smiled at his words, humbled by his honesty.

"I understand." she assured him. "After all, I'm the one who's been crushing on you for the last three years, not the other way around."

He chuckled softly at that.

"Yeah…and up until this last summer I hadn't even suspected you could _possibly _like me like that. I'd thought you were either grossed out by me or pitied me, or both. I mean, even when I thought you didn't like me I still kind of liked you, as a person I mean. I never _hated _you, Kagome…" he assured her. "Hell, I always thought you were pretty, and to be perfectly honest your natural scent is pleasing to my nose, which for me is _very _important, but despite that I just hadn't wanted to be nice to you, figuring you didn't deserve it for being racist towards me, when I thought you were. Still though, I liked you as a person. I think you're a good writer, you do good for the magazine and you take your job seriously, you're a hard worker, and I also respected the fact that you're a miko, because despite that being what I thought was the main reason why you didn't like me, I guess it's the youkai side of me that just recognizes and appreciates strength. You _certainly _ain't weak, to have so boldly made that painting of me to show in front of everyone without even knowing what my reaction was going to be. That took balls."

She laughed a little at that, supposing he was right.

"We're definitely compatible physically, so _that's _not a problem." he continued then, chuckling as she blushed at his words. "But I want to spend more time finishing getting to know you, to make sure my developing feelings are real and not just my formally neglected hormones making decisions for me."

'_Lust at first sight' can lead to true love_… she reminded herself, proud beyond words that Inuyasha's basic point of view on the subject seemed to mirror her own. She too couldn't say yet with 100% certainty how she felt, thought she was definitely looking forward to finding out. Something told her that no matter what, she and Inuyasha would definitely remain good friends from here on out, though hopefully they would stay 'more' than friends.

"I agree." she stated then, smiling up at him sincerely.

"Well, now that _that's _settled…" Inuyasha spoke back up after a moment of peaceful silence, "Where do we go from here as in _right now_ right now?"

Laughing, Kagome said, "That depends on if you wanted to skip out before Sango gets home or stay for some yummy homemade breakfast."

He appeared to think it over for a brief moment before shrugging and stating, "Eh, she's gonna find out anyway, right? So why leave on an empty stomach? I didn't have any plans for the day."

Kagome beamed happily at that; Sango was in for one hell of a surprise, though hopefully if the slayer had a ring on her finger then Kagome could shift most of the conversation away from herself and Inuyasha to pry into the details of Sango's evening, instead. Ultimately, she knew it would end up spreading throughout the entire office that she and Inuyasha had spent Christmas Eve together, but the fact of the matter was she just didn't care. Perhaps if it had been a foolish, drunken one-night-stand then she would feel differently, but as it was she was looking forward to her and her…boyfriend…getting to know each other.

Climbing out of bed at that last thought, Kagome squealed in laughter as the hanyou beside her suddenly lunged forward and yanked her naked body back down onto the bed.

"On second thought, what's the hurry?" he purred as he crawled over her.

"I've created a monster." she repeated through a round of giggles that quickly turned into moans of pleasure.

~ Fin ~


End file.
